25 June, 2014

2014 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize - call for entries

Entries invited for literary prize

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation is inviting entries for the 2014 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. In its seventh year, the prize is a cash award of one lakh rupees, and a trophy.

The award covers poetry, fiction (including graphic novels), creative non-fiction (travel writing, autobiography, biography, and narrative journalism), and drama.

The deadline for publishers and individuals to send in first books (no limit to the number of entries) is July 15, 2014. Books published between June 2013 to June 2014 are eligible. The winner will be announced in November and the prize presentation will take place in Delhi, December 2014.

Authors from the subcontinent are eligible but books must be published in India.

Publications must be in English or translated into English from an Indian language.

Books that have been published elsewhere and have already won prizes are eligible, though less likely to win. Vanity press publications are ineligible.

Books (2 copies) should be sent to the following address:
The Shakti Bhatt Foundation,
011, Maangalya Residences, 6/1, Benson Cross Road, Bangalore 560046.

For further information, contact shaktibhattprize at gmail dot com

1 comment:

Rasana Atreya said...

This is a wonderful initiative to honour Shakti Bhatt.

Your guidelines state 'no vanity publishing.' I would like to clear a common misconception, if I may.

Self-publishing isn't vanity publishing. Vanity publishing is when you pay someone to publish you, which isn't the case with self-publishing.

I self-published despite having a traditional publishing contract. The pre-publication manuscript of my novel, Tell A Thousand Lies, was short-listed for an award by the eminent writers Urvashi Butalia and Amit Chowdhury. After I self-published, my book has been an Amazon bestseller in more than two years it has been on sale. In June 2014, UK's Glam magazine called my novel one of their 'five favourite tales from India.'

A lot of self-publishers take pride in their work. We hire professional editors and cover designers.

The Guardian (UK) has taken the initiative by accepting self-published novels for review. It would wonderful if Shakti Bhatt were the first prize in India to consider self-published novels.

Regards, Rasana Atreya