We are happy to reveal our shortlist for the 2023 edition of Writing Nepal: A Short Story Contest. We had over a hundred submissions this year, and have truly enjoyed reading your stories. Here, in no particular order, is our final shortlist for 2023, as selected by author Samrat Upadhyay:

‘Unwritten Letters’ by Dia Yonzon

‘Tigerskies’ by Pallavi R. Shrestha

‘Till you remember to forget me’ by Lalahang

‘Through thick and thin’ by Prabhat Joshi

‘On the Love of Ice Cream’ by Prashansha Maharjan

‘The empty cup’ by Sachi Mulmi

‘Red Green Flag’ by Saluja Siwakoti

‘The Guru’ by Sambridi Gautam

‘The Castaway Mountain’ by Sandesh Ghimire

‘The Muse’ by Shambhavi Basnet

‘Kumari Galli is Now a Cul-de-sac’ by Sharad Duwal

‘Mr. Pasang’ by Tsering Tsomo Gurung

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers! We’ll be contacting you individually soon and hope to meet all of you during the Award Ceremony.

We thank all the writers who took the time to share their stories with us, we hope you will continue to write and reach out to us with your writing projects. Given the volume of good stories that came our way this year, our judge Samrat Upadhyay would like to acknowledge the following submissions that did not make the shortlist, but deserve an honorable mention. We hope you will continue writing!

‘The Acceptance’ by Abish M. Shakya

‘Truth or Dare’ by Alfa M. Shakya

‘The Despondant Man’s Gift’ by Biraj Rai

‘Artha’ by Dixit K.C.

‘The Girl in the Balcony’ by Rabindra Adhikary

‘How do they say I love you in Nepali’ by Rupesh Bhattarai

‘My cousin Junu didi’ by Shuvangi Khadka

‘Penguin and tomatoes’ by Smriti Basnet

‘The Hollow Whispers of Manohara’ by Surath Giri

‘Comings and Goings’ by Vishnu S. Rai

The Award Ceremony for this year’s Writing Nepal will be hosted at 2:00 pm, Thursday, December 21, at Malpi Institute, Baluwatar, Kathmandu. Samrat Upadhyay will announce the winners during the program which will feature short readings by the winners. The event is open to everyone.