Published on January 17, 2005

The second annual Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards for Thailand, which promotes creative English-language essay-writing among high-school students, kicks off today in four regions of the country.

Entries for essays with the theme “My Thailand, My Dream” will be accepted from now until February 15 from Thai and non-Thai students studying in Thailand between the ages of 14 to 18. Writers are encouraged to write about their dreams or hopes for Thailand as their home country, or as a tourist attraction.

Regional winners in the contest will receive cash prizes and national winners will receive a free trip to Ireland to attend the Senior Dublin Literary Awards ceremony. The awards are the world’s richest literary prizes, and are sponsored by international productivity consultant IMPAC and Enterprise Ireland. In Thailand the contest will be organised by The Nation, Nation Junior and affiliated publications in the North, South and Northeast.

The first Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards given out last year attracted 150 quality submissions on the theme of “A Portrait of a Young Thai”. The Thai winner last year was a student from Triam Udom Suksa School in Bangkok and the non-Thai winner was an American student from Grace International School in Chiang Mai.

“As Ireland is a country with a rich literary tradition in the English language, I am delighted to support this writing competition which aims to encourage young Thais to express themselves clearly and creatively through the medium of English. I look forward to helping judge this contest and to reading the thoughts of the young people of Thailand,” said Daniel Mulhall, the Irish Ambassador to Thailand.

James Irwin, chairman of IMPAC and founder of the original Dublin Literary Awards, is pleased that the programme has been expanded to cover more of Thailand. “The expansion of the award to cover all of Thailand fulfils my original vision of the award, which couldn't have been accomplished without the support of The Nation. We are very excited about this,” he said.

The Phuket Gazette will monitor the contest in the southern provinces, Chiang Mai’s Citylife magazine will monitor the North and the Korat Post will supervise the contest in the country’s northeast. The Nation will handle Bangkok and central Thailand. Each region will have its own set of judges.

Students who fall between the ages of 14 to 18 as of April 1, 2005 are eligible to enter the contest by submitting an entry before February 15. The length of the essay should be between 800 to 1,200 words. Regional winners will be announced in March and national winners will be recognised at a gala dinner later that month.

Top regional essays, in Thai and non-Thai categories, will earn Bt10,000. Two merit awards valued at Bt5,000 will also be awarded in each region. One Thai and one non-Thai national winner will then be chosen from the regional winners, with each winning author and one parent winning a trip Dublin, Ireland.

This year’s judges for Bangkok and the national awards are Sirikorn Maneerin, adviser to the minister of education and former education minister; HE Daniel Mulhall, the Irish Ambassador to Thailand; Asst Professor Suchada Nimmannit, the former president of Thailand Tesol; Prapassorn Sevikul, president of the Writers Association of Thailand; Win Leowarin, author and two-time SeaWrite Award winner; and Pana Janviroj, the editor of The Nation.

Post your comment to this story here