The Poet Bimal Gurung Memorial Library has announced a literary award to be conferred for the best book published in the year. The award will carry a purse of Rs 51,000 and will be handed over on May 7, 2018 marking the death anniversary of poet Gurung.

The Library announced that the awarded book may be from any genres—poetry, fiction or research. For which, the Library’s governing body recently sent a notice to authors and publishers to submit three copies of the books published within the academic year.

The Library also announced yet another award—Purna-Saraswati Honour—to be conferred to one oustanding poet.

Chevan Rai, secretary of the Library, said that the awards were announced in view of the Library’s attempt to honour and encourage litterateurs and academicians. To encourage the youths towards reading and writing, the Library is coming up with extensive programmes, said Koyu Rai, a member of the Library’s working committee.

The Poet Bimal Gurung Memorial Library was established in memory of Gurung, who passed away at the age of 19, by his family.

“Even though established in memory of our late son, the library is dedicated to all the fellow poets and litterateurs in Nepali literature scape. Also, this is my little contribution to the society I live in. I hope the fellow literature lovers will use it to their best benefit,” said Purna Bahadur Gurung, the late poet’s father and founder of the library.

Every year, the Library organises a national-level poetry recital competition to mark poet Gurung’s birthday, on November 15.  The Library, located at Buddhachowk in Dharan, currently boasts over 18,000 books spanning different genres and languages.