Recipients of the 3rd Annual Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards and dignitaries in a group photo at the prize ceremony at Conrad Bangkok Hotel last night.

The grand awards function, which was held at Conrad Bangkok Hotel, attracted more than 150 distinguished guests including educators, academics, students with their parents, authors and other keen promoters of creative writing. The event featured the keynote speech by Khunying Chamnongsri L Rutnin Hanchanlash, Thailand's noted author and poetess.

Presented annually with the goal of promoting excellence in creative writing, the 3rd Annual Junior IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards for Thailand is organised by The Nation, Nation Junior and its affiliated publications in the North, Northeast and South. Sponsors include IMPAC, Enterprise Ireland, Embassy of Ireland and PCS Co Ltd.

Divided into national and regional categories, this year's contest was open to Thai students in the Kingdom aged 14 to 18. Entries were essays in English, between 800 and 1,200 words in length.

Waranya Nawaluck, a 17-year-old student from Kathuwittaya School in Phuket, was the national winner. She was also the winner of the southern category. The Bangkok winner was Arissara Pattaramalai, 17, from International Community School, Bangkok. The winner of the North was Jinjutha na Srito, 17, a student at Chiang Mai International School. There was no qualified winner of the Northeast contest.

The essay by the national winner re-volves around the impact that the 2004 tsunami disaster had. One of the judges, Suchada Nimmanit, said the strength of the national winner was her choices of words and simple metaphors.

"These metaphors recreate the vivid pictures of the massive destruction. Despite minor grammatical inaccuracies, Waranya conveys in her writing her memories of the massive destruction of the tsunami, the contrast between the moment of joy and fear, and finally, the compassion and the gracefulness of the Thai and international volunteers which helped the mental recovery of the survivors. In all, these qualify her as this year's winner," said Suchada.

Meanwhile, Arissara, the Bangkok winner, uses simple English to talk about His Majesty King Bhumibol as a role model who demonstrates grace and compassion towards his people in his efforts to alleviate problems experienced by farmers and villagers.

This year's event attracted more than 400 entries submitted from all over the country. Each region had its own panel of judges. The Phuket Gazette monitored the contest in the southern provinces while Chiang Mai's Citylife magazine was responsible for entries in the North. The Nation's regional bureau supervised the contest in the Northeast.

Handling entries from the provinces in central Thailand including Bangkok, The Nation's editorial team made an initial selection in early January, leading to a shortlist of six finalists, all schoolgirls. They represented such prestigious schools as International Community School, Shrewsbury International School and Yothinburana School.

This year's judges for Bangkok and the national awards are Dr Charuaypon Toranin, permanent secretary, Ministry of Education; Dr Sirikorn Maneerin, director, TK Park, and former deputy education minister; HE Eugene Hutchinson, the Irish Ambassador; Assoc Prof Suchada Nimmannit, former president of Thailand Tesol, the association of teachers of English; Assoc Prof Prathoomporn Vajrasthira, a former SeaWrite judge and CU lecturer; Ajarn Atchara Pradit, head of Children's Literature Programme, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University; Salisa Pinkayan, author of the English-language novel "Chalida"; and Pana Janviroj, president, The Nation.

The winner from each region will take home a cash prize of Bt10,000 while two merit award winners each receive Bt5,000 in cash. The national winner - chosen from the regional winners - will travel to Dublin accompanied by a parent where she will attend the Senior International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards ceremony. The awards are the world's richest literary prizes, and are sponsored by international productivity consultant IMPAC and Enterprise Ireland.

The junior competitions aim to promote excellence in creative writing in the English language. Junior contests are also held in Mexico, the Northeas-tern United States and Malaysia. The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was initiated by the Dublin City Council. Awarded yearly, the objective is to promote excellence in world literature. It is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the book has been published in English or in an English translation in the time period specified in the rules and conditions for that year.