Winners of 2nd Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature announced

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 26 (MExN): The Kohima Educational Trust (UK) and Kohima Educational Society (Nagaland) has announced the winners of the 2nd Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature (GGPNL). 

In the Fiction category, “My Mother’s Daughter” by Neikehienuo Mepfhü-o (Heritage Publishing House, Dimapur) has been adjudged the winner while “The Hornbill Spirit: Nagas Living Their Nationalism” by Abraham Lotha (Heritage Publishing House, Dimapur) was adjudged as the winner in the Non-Fiction category. 

The prize of Rs 100,000 and a certificate will be presented to each of the winners at the inaugural function of the Hornbill Festival on December 1, 2019, at Kisama Naga Heritage Village.  

A press statement issued by KES president Charles Chaise said the prize was instituted in order to recognize and reward the knowledge-keepers and idea-givers in Naga society and to encourage and promote reading and writing within the Naga community. It is intended to give visibility to rational discourse in society and to help bring the thinking elements in Naga society to play a more effective role in the larger life of the community and society. 

For the 2019 Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature, a list of five books, by Naga authors were shortlisted. 

These books included the works by Sentilong Ozukum (“Campus Blues”), Neikehienuo Mepfhü-o (“My Mother’s Daughter”) and Temsula Ao (“Aosenla’s Story”) in the Fiction category. In the Non Fiction category, the works were by Abraham Lotha (“The Hornbill Spirit: Nagas Living their Nationalism”) and Easterine Kire (“Walking the Roadless Road: Exploring the Tribes of Nagaland”). 

These shortlisted works were given to three independent judges – one judge from Nagaland and two from outside, one from Manipur and the editor-in-chief of The Fair Observer, USA, to make the final selections.