Eminent litterateur Shantadas Manandhar has been honoured with this year’s Devkota Lu-Xun Academy Award. Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari presented the award along with a purse of Rs 50,000 at a function held at the Nepal Art Council over the weekend.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Adhikari professed to having read Manandhar’s work since childhood and knew him as a “writer of accessible, fluid prose.”

“Art and literature plays a vital role in driving society towards the right direction, so it is imperative that everyone take art and literature seriously,” Adhikari said, “The ministry is committed to working towards the promotion of Nepali literature.”

Addressing the audience, Manandhar said that literature plays a crucial role in any society’s progress. “Literature has the power to make aware and galvanise mankind,” he said.

Manandhar is also a writer of children’s literature and has been active in making children’s literature available to readers across the country. Balkoseli, one of Manandhar’s most popular works, is regarded as one of the most remarkable books in the canon of Nepali children’s literature.

Speaking at the event, writer Ram Prasad Gyawali said that Manandhar was a “dynamic personality and an impartial thinker.” While Ram Babu Subedi, vice-chair of Devkota-Lu Xun Academy, hailed Manandhar’s contributions to Nepali literature as “incomparable”.

The event also occasioned a presentation of a dissertation on Mahakavi Devkota’s body of work—Mahakavi Laxmi Prasad Devkota ko Sahityik Chintan ra Baicharik Bikas—written by Prof Chudamani Bandhu.