TOTO Awards for English Creative Writing 2019: Call for Applications

TOTO AWARDS 2019

CREATIVE WRITING IN ENGLISH

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) invites applications from persons between the ages of 18 and 29 for the 2019 TOTO Awards for Creative Writing in English in three genres: short plays, short stories and poetry.

To mark the fifteenth year of the TOTO Awards, the cash prize for the each of the two winners has been increased to Rs 50,000. The winners will be decided by an independent panel of jurors. Entries should reach TFA by 20 August 2018 at the latest.

These awards are meant only for Indian nationals resident in India. (Overseas Citizen of India card-holders are not eligible.) And since the spirit of the awards is to identify promising young writers, you are eligible to apply if you were born on or after 1 January 1989. No exceptions will be made.

The hard copy and soft copy of each entry MUST be accompanied by an Application Form, which you can access here: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f8p426CPSlLZBJWKjkTITtjrVG3IhfSouWP9vfxwPDE/edit?usp=sharing  
You can also request a copy of the Application Form by writing to sarita.tfaawards@gmail.com No entry will be accepted without this form, with all particulars filled in along with your name and signature as it appears in your bank account.

Each entry should be not more than 7,500 words.

If you are submitting poems, please send us between 6 and 10 poems.

If you are submitting short stories, their combined word length should be at least 2,500 words. You can, if you wish, send only a single story of 2,500 to 7,500 words.

Similarly for plays, you may submit one or more plays, but the word length of your entry should not exceed 7,500 words.

You can send entries in all three categories — poems, short stories and plays — but you must send in a separate entry for each category. For example, your poems can constitute one entry, your short stories the second entry, and plays a third.

Please state the category for which you are applying on the envelope, e.g., Writing-English (poetry) or Writing-English (short fiction), or Writing-English (plays).

Also ensure that no page of your entry, with the exception of the Application Form and the envelope containing your entry, carries your name on it.

Unless you have won this TOTO award earlier, you are eligible to apply again, but please submit new work for consideration. 

Entries should be sent by email (MS word document only) to sarita.tfaawards@gmail.com. The hard copy should be sent by courier or ordinary post (and NOT by speed post or registered post) to the address below (the phone numbers supplied are for courier purposes only):  

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA)

H 301 Adarsh Gardens

47th Cross, 8th Block

Jayanagar

Bangalore 560 082

Phone 080 26990549 / 09880623357

If you have any further queries please email sarita.tfaawards@gmail.com

The Fine Print: Submitted material will not be returned. The decision of the TFA jury will be final and cannot be contested in any forum. We reserve the right to use your submitted writings (if necessary) to publicise the awards either on our blog, website or in any in-house materials such as a newsletter. Otherwise, the copyright rests with the writer and your submission will be put to no other use without your express permission. 

These awards are being supported by The Jamun, a residential space for writers, artists and scholars; and Salmin Sheriff, playwright, actor and director.

Toto Funds the Arts is a not-for-profit public trust set up in memory of Angirus ‘Toto’ Vellani, who was intensely passionate about music, literature and films.

Creative Journeys 8: Jayant Kaikini

Toto Funds the Arts

and

British Council Library, Bangalore

are delighted to invite you to

the eighth talk of TFA’s series Creative Journeys

by the well-known Kannada writer

Jayant Kaikini

Date: Friday, 23 March 2018.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore

JAYANT KAIKINI is a Kannada poet, short story writer, columnist and playwright living in Bangalore. He has six short-story and five poetry anthologies, three collections of non-fiction, and three plays to his credit; he is also a much sought-after lyricist, script and dialogue writer for Kannada films. Among his many literary awards are the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award which he first won at the age of 19 in 1974 for his debut poetry collection, followed by three more in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections. He received the Karnataka State Award for best dialogue and lyrics, and the Filmfare Award for best lyrics in Kannada four times — in 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017. A well-known television personality, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the Tumkur University in 2011 for his contribution to Kannada literature, film and television. His latest book is an anthology of essays on cinema, and his latest short story collection in English translation is No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories (Harper 2017).

His unfettered anecdotal chat in English salted with Kannada, moderated by journalist-author C.K. Meena, will span the ups and downs in his life, his intense relationship with Mumbai, his literary universe, his experiences in television and cinema and — in true Jayant mode — unexpected forays into whatever strikes his mind and stirs his memory.

The TFA Creative Journeys is a series of talks, providing a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce. 

Previous speakers have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji, Susmit Sen and Neel Chaudhuri with The Tadpole Repertory.