Entries Invited For Third Edition of Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: In the third year since its inception, the Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism have called for submissions in categories including fiction, non-fiction, feature and Op-ed.
The purpose of the awards is to recognise work done by queer and cis-het writers who are creating and building narratives around LGBTQIA+ lives, said Sharif D. Rangnekar, the founder of the awards in a statement.
“It is about building a genre and encouraging more people to come forth to write, as much as it is about telling the publishing and media world that this 'genre' and 'our' lives deserve attention, that every story makes a difference to social constructs and perceptions, that each of these narratives add to the community's sense of belonging,” said Rangnekar.
The awards aim to identify and reward exemplary affirmative work that brings to life authenticity, realities, stories of love, trials, tribulations, vulnerabilities and strength.
The purpose of the awards is to record such stories and that of history being made or retold and revisited through this process.
As part of the process, each year a jury reads and accesses the variety of entries from publishers, authors, journalists, freelance writers and editors.
“The endeavour is and will be to ensure fairness and studied assessments. The selection of eligible entries will be taken solely and only by the jury,” the statement added.
In the fiction segment under the literature category, novels, graphic novels and collections of short stories (by a single author) along with anthologies of short stories are eligible for entry.
The non-fiction segment includes memoirs, biographies, biographical anthologies, history and anything that doesn’t fall under Fiction, including poetry. In the journalism category, feature write-ups of a minimum length of 1,200 words are accepted while op-eds with a minimum length of 600 words are also eligible for the awards.
Books and articles in the aforementioned categories published between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025 (both days included) will be considered by the jury. The entries for the awards will be open between May 19 and July 18, 2025.
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