KOZHIKODE: The focus at the State School Arts Festival might always be more on popular and spectacular events like dance, music and drama. Prize winners in off-stage events, such as short story and versification, are hardly recognised, but that is all going to change.
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is bringing out the prize-winning short stories and poems in books, while the paintings will adorn the calendar of the DPI, to be brought out in June.
“The books will be published soon by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi,” K.V. Mohan Kumar, Director of Public Instruction, told The Hindu on Tuesday. “Besides the entries from the State School Arts Festival, we will also include stories and poems from the competitions held as part of Sargolsavam. Best stories and poems published in the Vidyarangam magazine, brought out by the DPI, would also be featured in the books.”
There will be two books, one for short stories and the other for poems. “Each of them will have about 100 works each,” said Mr. Mohan Kumar. “It is the first time in the history of the 60-year-old festival that the prize-winning short stories and poem are getting published.”
He added that the aim of the project was to encourage the literary talent among children. “We also felt their works needed to reach out to a wider audience,” he said.
At least one of the prize-winners has already been published and has attracted a lot of attention through the social media. Drupath Gowtham of GHSS, Meenangadi, came first in Malayalam versification in the HSS section at the State Festival.
If you do not want to wait to read his prize-winning poem, or other works of poetry, fiction and essays from the Kannur festival, you can log on to schoolwiki.in. The IT@School’s School Wiki project has uploaded most of the entries at the fFestival, including short stories, poems, essays, paintings, drawings, cartoons and collage.
EOM
