Neeve Literature Festival launches fellowships for children’s authors

The Neev Literature Festival (NLF) on Friday announced one-of-a-kind fellowships for children’s book creators that aim to facilitate high-quality, richly detailed books that mirror Indian lives and experiences. The fellowships will support selected book creators (writers and illustrators) with a grant of Rs 6 lakh each for a period of one year for researching and writing their book. Proposals are invited from children’s book creators to produce a book in any genre that has the power to connect with young readers universally, a statement from NLF said.

The Neev Trust has been working to promote children’s literature in India – with its annual literature festival NLF, reading challenge for children, and the Neev Book Award.

With this new initiative, NLF aims to facilitate engaging children’s books that capture a slice of India or Indians that is so deeply authentic, moving and immersive that it brings alive an aspect of India -pre and post-Independence, the statement said.

The NLF fellowships further aim to enrich the Indian children’s books space by helping build and nurture a high-quality body of work over time, it added.

According to Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, co-founder of NLF, “In a fragmented market that is swamped with international children’s literature and a publishing ecosystem that has traditionally under invested in children’s literature from India, the NLF Fellowships aim to fill a gap that will hopefully encourage Indian writers to embark on imaginative, ambitious and research driven literature for Indian audiences that is rooted in Indianness.”

Apart from the financial support, the NLF fellowships will provide mentorship and editorial support, ensure greater visibility, appreciation for well-crafted books and explore realistic routes to take these books global, the statement said.

There is no restriction on the genre – it could be a picture book, a graphic novel, a work of fiction, or non-fiction. The fellowship is open to Indian citizens and residents who are persons of Indian origin.

The jury for the fellowship includes Neev Trust founder Sabharwal, founder of Storywallahs Ameen Haque as well as NLF director Karthika Gopalakrishnan.

It will assess the proposals and prepare a shortlist of eligible candidates. The shortlisted candidates will be subject to a thorough interview process with a panel consisting of the NLF Fellowships jury members, as well as other eminent persons from the worlds of children’s writing and scholarship.

The applications are open from Friday and the last date to apply is June 30. The fellows will be announced in October during the Neev Literature Festival.