Suman Pokhrel.

Born in Biratnagar on September 21, 1967, Pokhrel spent his early years there before moving to his ancestral village Kachide in Dhankuta, raised by his paternal grandmother. His paternal grandfather Bidhyanath Pokhrel was a poet and politician; his maternal grandfather Ganeshprasad Rijal served in Nepal’s first parliament. Both studied together in Varanasi in the 1930s, establishing a family legacy of intellectual and political engagement. Pokhrel returned to Biratnagar at age twelve to live with his parents, both of whom had strong literary interests. His father Mukunda Prasad Pokhrel, an engineer, loved art and literature; his mother Bhakta Devi Pokhrel was a devoted reader. Pokhrel attended a government kindergarten and later studied at Adarsha Higher Secondary School and Mahendra Morang Adarsh Multiple Campus.

Pokhrel published his first poetry collection Shoonya Mutuko Dhadkanbhitra in 1999, followed by Hazaar Aankhaa Yee Aankhaa Maa in 2003 and Jeevanko Chheubaata in 2009. His play Yajnaseni, based on the Mahabharata, premiered in Dallas in 2016. He recorded several poems and songs, including Taj Mahal and My Love 2010 and Na Ta Din Bhayo 2013. In 2018 he translated Shakespeare’s The Tempest into Nepali as Aandhibehari, published by Nepal Academy. Pokhrel received the SAARC Literary Award in 2013 and again in 2015, the only writer to achieve this distinction twice. He also won the Asia’s Inspiring Poet Award in 2023 and the Shaluk International Literature Award in 2023.

Pokhrel is married to Goma Dhungel, and they have two children: Ojaswee Pokhrel and Ajesh Pokhrel. He lives in Biratnagar, Nepal. His siblings are Meena Pokhrel and Rajan Pokhrel. Despite his international literary engagements, Pokhrel maintains a grounded family life in his hometown.

Pokhrel’s poetry is translated into over a dozen languages and appears in anthologies worldwide. His work is part of the curricula at Tribhuvan University and Purbanchal University in Nepal, and at the University of Kerala, GD Goenka University, and Cauvery College for Women in India. Admirers have tattooed verses from his poems, and his lines are frequently quoted on social media. He is often called a Universal Poet or International Poet. His Russian-language collection Ot Berega Zhizni From the Shore of Life was published in 2026, presented at the A.F. Losev House-Museum in Moscow. Pokhrel is remembered as the most dominant Nepali poetic voice of his generation on the global stage.