Muse India Announces National Literary Awards

Via Muse India

Muse India (www.museindia.com) is the leading literary web journal of the country that showcases Indian Writings in English, and regional literatures of India in translation, to a global audience.

To recognize and reward excellence in Indian literature, Muse India is happy to announce institution of two National Awards to be given annually, during Hyderabad Literary Festival. These are –

Muse India Young Writer Award to be given to an outstanding original work in English or in English translation from an Indian language. Each year the award will be for a different literary genre (poetry, short fiction, play, novel etc.). For the 2011 award, the genre is poetry.

Muse India Translator Award to be given to a significant work of translation into English from any of the Indian languages. Translation should be of a classic or any other important literary work, preferably not translated earlier, and seen as an important contribution to Indian Literature.

The Reward

Each of the Awards will have a citation and a cash prize. The amount will be Rs.20,000 for the Young Writer Award and Rs.30,000 for the Translator Award.

Of the amount of Rs 20,000 for Young Writer Award, Rs 5000 will be given to the translator, in case the award goes to a translated work. Otherwise the entire amount goes to the author. The focus here will be to recognize originality and merit in a young writer’s work.

Of the amount of Rs 30,000 for the Translator Award, Rs 5000 will be given to the original author, if alive. Else, the entire sum goes to the translator. This award will recognize not only the merit of translation but also the effort involved in bringing to a wider audience, a classic or an outstanding work of a regional language, which otherwise would remain largely unknown

The 2011 awards will be given during Hyderabad Literary Festival 2012, tentatively scheduled for Jan 16-18, 2012 in Hyderabad.