Short Story 2019 Winners announced

Short Story Competition 2019: Here are the winners of Sunday Herald Short Story Competition

I Prize

Srinivasa Gopala P K

Srinivasa Gopala P K

Title: Full Stop Over Comma

Srinivasa is an engineer by training and a technical writer by day. Beyond the cubicle, he attempts writing verses, stories, and pieces. He has been making these writing attempts from well before he got an IT ID, and perhaps with some dedication since his second year in college. A blog that has never had enough visitors to merit being monetised is where much of what he writes is preserved. He’s had a few pieces published in a local eveninger in his hometown of Mysore, gratifying his desire to see his name as a byline.

Short Story as a genre was mostly unknown to him till his Diploma in Creative Writing in English from IGNOU. While he does remember some principles of story-telling from the course, importantly, he gained the habit of reading more fiction and non-fiction, focusing as much on the themes as the nuances of writing. Undoubtedly, he has much to read and to learn, and, he hopes, to write.

II Prize

Nikhil D Hegde

Nikhil D Hegde

Title - Fat Polish Mama

The world of quantification and logic and interpretation is a world of remarkable discipline. For Nikhil, it didn’t take a lot to conclude after 12 years as an engineer across three continents. Realising, however, what was expected of him in the 12 years that were to follow, he jumped ship to his passion of writing, courtesy, of course, the moral support of his near and dear ones!

Did he carry forward some of that discipline to his writing endeavours? Sure… the leaps and bounds of this new space were a thing to marvel, he thought, if one can but connect the dots and define the boundaries. Armed with some misplaced snippets of wisdom from within and some far better ones from without, he let loose the ink… A year in, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing and there’s always the occasional period void of inspiration. But, he is discovering the new discipline of persistence that pays off eventually. And there is something about a finished piece, if it delivers on a certain purity of expression.

III Prize

Sanjana M Vijayshankar

Sanjana M Vijayshankar

Title - Under Pressure

Sanjana has been writing since she was 11 years old. What started off as a hobby reserved for summer vacations and the odd Wednesday grew into a passion that she started to pursue in earnest. Her works have found themselves in popular children’s magazines. She is also the published author of two novels - Halos and Horns and Girls Like to Swing. In her spare time, Sanjana likes to travel, cook, and pretend to still be interested in her coin collection.

JUDGES

Vasudhendra

Vasudhendra is a Kannada author and lives in Bengaluru. The author of 15 books in Kannada, he has won many literary awards, including the Kannada Sahitya Academy Book Prize. His award-winning Nammamma Andre Nangishta has been reprinted 20 times. His book Mohanaswamy chronicles the life of a young queer man. It has been translated into many languages. After working as a software professional for more than 20 years, Vasudhendra now runs his own publication house, Chanda Pustaka, which publishes new writing in Kannada.

Nandita Bose

Nandita Bose is a Bengaluru-based writer, poet, book reviewer, and occasional columnist. Her works include fiction against the backdrop of dilemmas: individual, situational, cultural or patriarchal. The focus is on the details of women’s journeys to self-awareness bound by social sanction and consent. These narratives aim to bring back maturer women to the mainstream by addressing issues that are relevant and relatable. Each of her novels, Everglow, Shadow & Soul, If Walls could Weep, The Perfume of Promise and Tread Softly detail the intricate complications women need to negotiate within families, careers and marriages. Nandita’s past occupational avatars have been in academics, and as a consultant in the HR industry.

Madhavi Mahadevan

Madhavi Mahadevan has worked as a bookseller, advertising copywriter, and editor. She has been writing fiction for three decades; her repertoire includes the short story, the novella, and the novel. She considers the short story the most demanding of all, and Anton Chekhov as its foremost exponent. Madhavi’s early work came out in the Deccan Herald. Since then, she has published over a hundred short stories for children, as well as two books, one a first prize winner in a national competition. She has also authored two short story collections for adult readers: Paltan Tales and Doppelganger. An interest in crime fiction led to the writing of Swansong, an e-novella. Her first novel, The Kaunteyas, is a retelling of the Mahabharat from the perspective of Kunti. Exploring the epic from the viewpoints of minor yet significant characters remains a fascination and a second novel is due early next year.