Awarding Ceremony: National Literary & Sarpay Beikman Manuscript Awardees Honoured

A total of 12 Literati were awarded for the National Literary Award while three others honoured as the Lifetime Achievement Awardees for the year 2020. Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attended the National Literary Award Presenting Ceremony, held in Yangon on Saturday.

The Senior General congratulated the award-winning literati and urged them to continue the efforts for the interest of the country and the people byusing the mighty power of pen.

The selected categories for 2020 National Literary Award include Novel, Classic and Modern Poems, Belles-Lettres, Myanmar Culture and Art, Translation (General Knowledge), General Knowledge Literatures for Art and Applied Science, Political Literature, English Language Literatures for General Knowledge and Aesthetic and Aesthetics (Essay). The selection process was conducted phase by phase after scrutinizing the books published for the first time in 2020.

Union Minister, Ministry of Information, H.E. Maung Maung Ohn said “Today’s ceremony can be said as the biggest event of the state. Only when the literature standard is high, will the status of the nation be promoted. So, today, we can witness how the government praised and paid emphasis on the doyen literati.

The Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to U MaungMaungLatt (Naung), U Sein Hlaing (Thura Zaw) and Daw Cho Cho Tin (Ma Sandar) for their commitment for publishing outstanding Myanmar literatures throughout their life.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Sein Hlaing (Thura Zaw) said “My whole life has been dedicated for literature. I did not engage in other businesses throughout my life. But I find my life convenient with the incomes from my manuscripts. I have been working in the literary world since my 18 years of age. I have been working on it till today and will keep on continue doing it as much as I can.”

Sarpay Beikman Manuscript Awards were also presented to 27 winners in 9 categories of Novel, Collected Short Stories, Collected Poems, General Knowledge Literatures for Art, and Science and Applied Science, Belles-Lettres, Myanmar Culture and Art, Children’s Literature and Youth Literature.

Third Prize Winner, Belles-Lettres Category, NandarKhin (ThakalaMyay) said “My award-winning piece is about my experiences throughout my life as teachers during 33 years services. I started as a teacher life in 1987. It’s all about my experiences of teaching to the children, the environ that I moved around especially the rural areas. I have faced many difficulties. But being a teacher, we have to endure it as we need to have goodwill, hobby, sacrifice and kindness.”

First Prize Winner, Children’s Literature Category, Wut Yee Khin (Bago) said “There are altogether 17 short stories in the book that I have been awarded. It gives awareness for the children to safeguard and cherish the traditional customs and nationalistic fervour. It also guided them to have respect on the elders,have attentiveness to the peer groups and have sympathy to the youngers.”

It is learnt that 10 million kyats cash awards were presented to the Lifetime Achievement Award winners while 3 million kyats to the National Literary Award winners. The Sarpay Beikman Literary Award winners were awarded with 1.5 million, 1 million and 700,000 kyats for first, second and third prizes respectively.