A 15-year-old student from Triam Udom Suksa has won the 2009/2010 Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Thailand following an entry of close to 1,000 English-language essay contestants.
The Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Thailand, now in its sixth year, is supported by the Embassy of Ireland, Property Care Services (Thailand), Kerry Group and international consultant IMPAC. It is organised by Nation Junior, the Phuket Gazette, CityLife Chiang Mai and The Nation. It is open to all Thai students between the ages of 15 and 18.
All the winning essays as well as the final shortlist can be viewed on www.nationmultimedia.con and www.247friend.net.
"Again, the quality of the essays was excellent and there were creative twists in many of them," said Pana Janviroj, chief operating officer of The Nation.
"Regrettably, the founder of the contest, Dr James Irwin, Jr, passed away recently. He would have been proud of this year's winners," said Pana.
The contest's national judging panel comprised Eugene Hutchinson, the Irish ambassador to Thailand; Sirikorn Maneerin, former deputy education minister; Assoc Prof Suchada Nimmannit, former president of Thailand Tesol, the association of teachers of English; Assoc Prof Prathoomporn Vajrasthira, author and former international relations lecturer at Chulalongkorn University; Atchara Pradit, head of the Children's Literature Programme, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University; and Pana.
Jirapat was also the winner for the central region, which saw Pattamon Petngamying from the International Community School and Aekasitt Guruvanich, 18, at Yothinburana School as runnersup.
The winner from the northeastern region was Pimchanok Narenpithak from Benchamamaharat School in Ubon Ratchathani province, with two merit awards going to Prasert Martyn from Khon Kaen Vithes Suksa Bilingual School and Yothin Chinsaen from Srikranuanwittayakom School.
The northern and southern winners were announced last month in separate regional awards presentation ceremonies. Dharit Tantiviramanond from Chiang Mai International School won the top prize in the North, while Joy Corthesy from QSI School, Phuket, won in the South.
The organisers presented the prizes to the winners yesterday at the Rembrandt Hotel and Towers Bangkok.
The original top prize, in which the national Thai winner was to have won a trip with one parent to attend the senior IMPAC Dublin Literary Award ceremony in Ireland in June, had to be cancelled following Dr James Irwin, Jr's recently passing. Jirapat instead receives a cash prize of Bt50,000.
