The third edition of La.Lit’s Writing Nepal short story contest, judged by US-based Nepali writer Samrat Upadhyay, has been won by Dipesh Risal with his short story ‘The Almost Enlightenment of Prince Trailokya’. Writing Nepal 2017 culminated with the announcement of the winners on Friday, 6 October, at the Yellow House in Sanepa, Lalitpur.

A shortlist of six had already been posted. The winners were announced by Samrat Upadhyay and excerpts from each were read out to the eager audience massed at the venue:First place: Dipesh Risal, ‘The Almost Enlightenment of Prince Trailokya’

Second place: Sujana Upadhyay, ‘Heart of Gold’

Third place: Byanjana Thapa, ‘To Drown’ & Shristi Upreti, ‘Brown Bird’

Honourable mentions:

Sarahana Shrestha, ‘The Ghosts of Meena Agrawal’

Abhishek Parajuli, ‘Thakur Dai’

The first placed entry won Rs. 12,000, the second placed entry won Rs 6,000, and the third placed prize money of Rs. 3,000 was split between the two winners.

La.Lit would like to congratulate the winners and thank all the participants. Our special appreciation to Samrat Upadhyay for judging the competition and sponsoring the prize money. Thanks also to The Yellow House for hosting this event. We’ll be posting the winning entries in the coming days, and hope to release an anthology of shorts early next year.