Poetry Contest Nepal 2026, Nepali & English
Quick answer: Monthly online poetry contest for poets in Nepal. Submit muktak, gajal or free verse in Nepali or English. Cash prizes, certificates and scores for every poet.
Nepali poetry begins for most readers with Bhanubhakta Acharya, who carried the Ramayana into everyday Nepali, and reaches its widest audience through Laxmi Prasad Devkota, whose Muna Madan borrowed the jhyaure folk metre and never left the national memory. The muktak, the Nepali gazal that Motiram Bhatta helped naturalise, geet, chhanda kavita and gadya kavita are all still written and still recited at kavi gosthi evenings in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Biratnagar.
Writory's monthly contest gives that work an international readership without asking it to become English first. Submit in Nepali, in Maithili, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa or Tamang, or in English if that is where your thinking happens. Judging runs on five fixed criteria and the resulting score belongs to the poet, stored in the profile month after month. Poets from over 50 countries have taken part, so a Nepali poem is measured in genuinely international company.
Writory is a monthly international poetry contest that poets in Nepal can enter in Nepali, English or any other language they write in, with cash prizes for winners and a participation certificate for everyone.
Why enter
- A muktak of four lines is never penalised for being short, because Writory sets no length rule and no required form.
- Poems in Maithili, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa, Tamang and Limbu count as fully as Nepali or English ones.
- The whole process happens online, which matters when the nearest literary gathering is a long bus ride away.
- There is a fresh call every month, so a poet in Nepal is never left waiting a year for the next opportunity.
- Writory appears in Duotrope and Reedsy's competition listings, which places a Nepali entry inside an international circuit.
What winners and entrants receive
- Winning poems receive cash prizes each month, and the month's top ten are listed on the public leaderboard.
- The five criteria scorecard comes back to every poet, winner or not, so even an unplaced poem returns something usable.
- A certificate of participation is issued to each entrant and stays in the profile.
- Winners skip the fee the next month, and so does anyone who has entered three months consecutively.
Muktak, Nepali gazal, geet, chhanda kavita, gadya kavita, haiku and free verse are all accepted, in Nepali, English or any language of Nepal.
Key facts
- Entries open the 1st, close the 25th at 11:59 PM IST, results on the 30th.
- One poem $5, two poems $8, five poems $15 (Rs 150 / Rs 220 / Rs 450 in India).
- Every poem scored by human judges on five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme.
- A participation certificate for every entrant, not only winners, and the score is visible in your profile.
- Cash prizes for winners, free entry the following month for winners, open worldwide from age 13, any language.
Questions
Do I have to write in English to be taken seriously here?
No. A poem in Nepali is read as a poem in Nepali, and Maithili, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa and other languages of the country are equally valid. Writory places no language above another.
What stops a poem from Nepal being overlooked next to entries from bigger markets?
Scoring is fixed to creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, applied identically to every entry, and each poet can open their own breakdown in their profile rather than being told only that they did not place.
How much is the entry fee in Nepal?
Pricing is in US dollars: one poem $5, two poems $8, five poems $15. A win makes the following month free, and so does entering three months running.
What is the monthly timetable?
Submissions open on the 1st, the door closes on the 25th, and winners go up on the 30th. The next cycle then begins with the new month.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
Enter the September contest · All poetry competitions 2026: deadlines & prizes · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems