Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2010
The Vodafone Crossword Book Award recognises and rewards the best of Indian writing and ensures that works of merit reach a wider audience.
Crossword and Vodafone are committed to promoting books and the reading habit. We have observed that the institution of international book awards – The Booker Prize, The Commonwealth Prize or The Pulitzer Prize has gone a long way in promoting the awareness and the reading of good books. The authors gain recognition and are rewarded handsomely.
While several Indian writers have won awards abroad, we had observed that there was no equivalent award in India. We therefore decided to take on the role of encouraging and promoting good Indian writing and instituted the Book Awards in 1998. It is the only Indian award that not only recognizes and rewards good writing but also actively promotes the authors and their books.
The Vodafone Crossword Book Awards for 2010 will be given out in the following categories:
1. Vodafone Crossword Fiction Award
2. Vodafone Crossword Non-Fiction Award
3. Vodafone Crossword Translation Award
4. Vodafone Crossword Children’s Award
5. Vodafone Crossword Popular Award
The Vodafone Crossword awards for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Translation & Children’s writing will each carry a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs, a trophy and a citation. The Popular Award entitles the winning author to a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh and a certificate. In the case of a translated book, the author and the translator share the prize money equally.
The valid entries consisting of books published between the period 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2010 will be assessed by five independent panels of judges consisting of academics, critics and authors, whose books are not eligible for the Awards. A shortlist of 5 books in each category will be announced at a press conference in June 2011. The final prizes would be distributed at an Award function in July 2011 in Mumbai.
Vodafone Crossword Children’s Award
* Entries must be works of children and teenage prose fiction or non-fiction.
* Entries can be illustrated books / poems / full-length novels or collections of short stories by one author.
* Entries can be original works in English or translated into English from any Indian language.
* If the submitted work is an original work in English, the author must be an Indian citizen* and must be alive on the date of submission.
* If the submitted work is a translation from any Indian language into English, the translator must be an Indian citizen and must be alive on the date of submission.
* In the case of illustrated works, the illustrator must be an Indian citizen and must be alive on the date of submission.
* Entries must be English translations of works in any Indian language written after 1947.
* The publisher must verify the author / translator / illustrator’s citizenship before entering the book.
* All entries must be published in India within the period 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2010.
* The author, translator & illustrator must be alive on the closing date for the entries.
* If the winning entry is a translated or / and illustrated work, the author, translator and illustrator will share the prize money equally.
* The last date for receiving the entry forms is 31th March 2011.
Read the guidelines for the other categories here.
