THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE 2023

 Announcing the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize for 2023

On Gandhi’s 134th birth anniversary, The Khushwant Singh Literary Festival’s Joy of Learning program, the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the literary journal Out of Print are pleased to announce the fourth edition of the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize, which aims to increase awareness amongst our young people of the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi in promoting the values of humanity, compassion, democracy, non-violence and truth-telling.

The competition invites entries in the form of a written or multimedia presentation from across India, and is open to students aged 16 to 18. 

The prize-winners will be announced in 2024, on March 12, which marks the start of Gandhi’s historic Dandi Salt March in 1930.

Details of the competition are listed below. They may also be viewed at this link.

The Entry Form for registering and participating in the competition may be downloaded here.

THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE 2023

Announcement and Rules

The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize aims to increase awareness amongst our young people of the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi in promoting the values of humanity, compassion, democracy, non-violence and truth-telling.

The competition invites entries in the form of a written or multimedia presentation from across India, and is open to students aged 16 to 18. Submissions from younger contestants may be considered but will be held to the same standard.

The last date of submission is January 14, 2024. 

Prizes will be awarded on March 12, which marks the start of Gandhi’s historic Dandi Salt March.

The top three submissions will be awarded prizes of: Rs. 15,000, Rs. 10,000, and Rs. 5000. A fourth prize of Rs. 5,000 for creative writing will also be awarded.

Prize winning essays will be published in the journal, Out of Print.

Rules: 

1. Registration. To register for the contest, students must send in their names through their schools (principal or designated teacher) to savita@kslitfest.com by November 30, 2023. 

Students wishing to enter independently may also write in directly to this email, giving their date of birth, name of school and grade. 

Should the participating schools or students wish, prize organizers can provide students with a set of readings.

2. Entry options. Entries can be either written (essay, poem, short story, short play) or multimedia (graphic novel, video or power point).

The word limits for written entries: 1500 to 2,000 words

The page limits for graphic novels: 5 to10 pages

Time limit for a video or power-point presentation: 2.5 minutes

3. Topics. Students may choose to address any one or more of the three topics listed below:

a. Would a Gandhian today support a uniform civil code? If yes, what would s/he say should be its core approach or elements? If no, why not?

b. How might Gandhi have responded to the way elections are conducted today, looking at one or more of the following: (1) election financing; (2) campaign rhetoric; or (3) the election commission.

c. Can the recently enacted reservation for women in parliament be considered Gandhian? Should it include Dalit and OBC quotas within it or should there be women’s quotas in existing Dalit and OBC reservation?

Note for teachers and students: Entrants are encouraged to show knowledge of Gandhi’s writings or practice in relation to the topics above. They are also encouraged to look at Gandhi in his context and offer their own analysis of whether his opinions on the three topics are valid today.

4. Submission. Entries must be submitted on Turnitin by 5 pm on January 14, 2023. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited and any entries found to have plagiarised are automatically disqualified. Students must properly reference any quotations.

We seek your cooperation to encourage maximum participation. Please share this with your students, fellow educators, and others in your network. 

We look forward to welcoming your students to the competition!

THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE

The Kodaikanal Gandhi prize was initiated and founded in 2019, the year of Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, by Radha Kumar, who is its principal donor. It's partners have included, the Gandhi Peace Foundation, the Kodaikanal Fellowship Library, the Kodai Chronicle and the literary journal Out of Print. In 2022, the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival joins hands with the organisers. 

The prize is open to students aged sixteen to eighteen, although submissions from younger applicants are also considered. 

Prizewinning entries are published in the Out of Print Blog. 

Links to the annual announcements of winners are listed below.

2023

2022

2021 

2020

Call for Submissions: THE DNA-OUT OF PRINT SHORT FICTION SPECIAL

THE DNA-OUT OF PRINT SHORT FICTION SPECIAL:

Out of Print Magazine will run a special short fiction feature for DNA.

To reference the choices made, and the transitions effected by this extraordinary Lok Sabha election, the theme of the fiction feature is CHOICE.

We are not seeking literal interpretations. Stories could comment on the alienation of contemporary life or, in contrast, emphasise the irrelevance of our societal structures by reflecting upon nature. Works could be personal, political or social. But ultimately they should bear some adherence to the theme – CHOICE. Or its lack!

Five stories will be chosen for the Short Story Special Issue of the mid-July DNA Sunday magazine, JUST BEFORE MONDAY. They will also be featured on the Out of Print blog. Shortlisted works will be posted in the online edition of DNA.

Submitted works must be in English, previously unpublished and close to 2000 words in length. Stand-alone excerpts from fiction under construction will also be entertained.

Submissions should be cut and pasted into the body of an email and sent to dnashortstories@gmail.com.

Subject line should read ‘DNA-Out of Print Fiction’.

A short bio of 150-200 words and a photograph* should accompany the submission.

One entry per author.

The last date for submissions is Friday, June 27 at midnight, Indian Standard Time.

Writers, whose stories have been chosen for publication, will be informed between July 10 and 12. If you have not heard from us by then, it means, unfortunately, that your piece has not been chosen.

We look forward to reading your work. 

*Please do not panic if you haven't attached a photograph. It is the story that is critical.

Out of Print Submissions

Out of Print is an online literary quarterly for short fiction with a connection to the Indian subcontinent.

We seek original writing in English or translated into English that is strong, well-crafted and reflects the pace and transition of our times. Based out of India, we are interested in submissions with a connection to the subcontinent from around the world. We encourage new writers and we encourage writing that tells a story.

Submission Guidelines:

No previously published work unless solicited

Word count between 1000 and 4000

Submissions to be cut and paste into the body of an email to outofprintmagazine@gmail.com 

Subject line should contain the word 'SUBMISSION' only

A cover letter with name, postal address, email address and telephone number

A short, approximately, 150 word biographical sketch

No attachments please.

Which means, of course, that all the material – story, cover letter, biographical sketch – to be included in the body of the email

One story at a time, please

Line spacing - double, no special fonts

Simultaneous submissions are accepted - please inform us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere

No offensive, excessively violent or gratuitous sexually explicit writing

On acceptance we may ask you to work with us on editing the story

Submissions all year round

We are a quarterly - we may take the entire three months before responding

Please wait one month after withdrawing or hearing from us about a submission that is in process before submitting again

If your work has been accepted, we probably won't publish another of your pieces in a consecutive issue

Copyright remains with the author. Out of Print has first electronic rights and e-archival rights. 

Should your piece be reprinted, we request the courtesy of an acknowledgement stating that the piece was first published in Out of Print with a link, if possible. 

Sending us a submission is tantamount to accepting this agreement.

No payment, unfortunately – we continue to seek sponsors.

In the mean time, we hope you will contribute to one of India's first online literary magazines dedicated to the short story.

For more on the kind of writing that interests us, and the reasons we may reject a submission, check Six Questions For Out of Print 

Out of Print 8

The June 2012 issue of Out of Print goes live – in July! Which might cause some sense of being out of sync among our readers. But we trust they have the faith and imagination to handle it.

In this issue we are pleased and proud to present six new stories.

We feature Rahul Soni’s metaphoric and finely told Local. A man on a local train in Mumbai finds himself transported to a place that echoes his emptiness of purpose, a solitary space where all is minimised to the random, to the accidental. Radhika Venkatarayan’s The History of Objects also examines a minimal existence, although her story is about acquisition and the meaning of letting go. The Brothers Kansara, an extract from Vidya Samson’s Indian Maiden’s Bust Loose uses a light hearted and amusing style to deconstruct the meaning of family and the mindlessness of social constraints. In Mansha Tandon’s The Invisible Constituency the reader must once again confront societal constraints, this time, with devastating consequences – the mass produced working environment of the young technology recruit allows little room for individuality. Anubha Yadav’s Naked Gods told from the point of view of a child is an intensely observant piece that follows the disintegration of a young man who is unable to come to terms with the corruption of his own innocence. Sashikanta Mishra’s Deerskin deals with a different scale and scope of corruption – social and institutional. Balance is perturbed when an unshakeably honest forest officer is posted in the region and only a higher power can resolve the situation. 

The issue features art by Anju Dodiya entitled The Difficulty. 

5 Out of Print Authors on the 2012 20 under 40 list

Thrilled and proud that five Out of Print authors, which includes our editor, Samhita Arni, are on the Elle 20 out of 40 list.

As Deepanjana Pal says in her blog post, From Elle: The Storytellers, ‘Inspired by Granta’s 20 under 40, the book enthusiasts in ELLE thought it was about time that there was a desi equivalent, so we got in touch with some of the sharpest reviewers in the business and with their help, emerged the list you see in the article titled “The Storytellers”.’

The Elle cover and editorial celebrate the issue’s commitment to literature. 

Below, our five authors, and links to their Out of Print stories. Congratulations!

- Samhita Arni

Sita in June 2011 (accompanying artwork, Ram Rahman. Click on image for story)
- Jahnavi Barua 

Birdsong in March 2011 
- Chandrahas Choudhury

Dnyaneshawar Kulkarni Changes His Name in September 2011

- Kuzhali Manickavel

This Is Us And This Is Us Outside in September 2010 

The Dolphin King in June 2011 (accompanying art, Jittish Kallat. Click on image for story)

- Annie Zaidi

Sujata in September 2011 

Out of Print Author Series: Anjum Hasan

We at Out of Print have pre-ordered and look forward with eagerness to reading Out of Print author and friend, Anjum Hasan's new collection of short fiction, Difficult Pleasures from the Penguin, Viking imprint.


From the Blurb: Wry, tender, borderline surreal,  Difficult Pleasures is a collection of stories about the need to escape and the longing to belong. 


Anjum, commenting on reading and writing short stories says, A collection of stories is not a novel in disguise. And a short story is not an equation. There is always something left over at the end of a modern story—in the reader, the desire to know more, perhaps, or the feeling that something inexpressible has been communicated. I like that idea—that in writing a story one is writing nothing more, but also nothing less, than ‘just’ a story.

Junoon Theatre

Waiting to figure out the exciting ways in which Out of Print will be part of this cool new platform for the arts:
Check out JUNOON an amazing new effort by Sanjana Kapoor and Sameera Iyengar to create multiple platforms to access, engage with and enjoy theatre and the related arts.
  
Here is what Sanjana and Sameera say:

Greetings from Junoon!

We have an audacious idea. We believe that the arts need to be an integral part of our world. And we believe that together we can make this happen. And so we've created Junoon.

As Junoon, we will create multiple platforms where you can access, engage with, and enjoy theatre and the related arts. Over the year, we will unravel a calendar of interactions and engagements to delight us all. A lot of this will initially happen in Mumbai, but soon spread to different parts of the country. That's our dream. We invite you to join us -- to participate, to help us spread the word, to celebrate the joy of theatre.

Engaging children and youth is key to the world that Junoon wants to build. Our ARTS AT PLAY programme will offer youngsters a series of delicious engagements with the arts over the year.

We begin with our summer season of workshops and plays -- which some of you have previously known as Summertime with Prithvi Theatre. This programme was started by Sanjna 22 years ago to bring the strength of theatre to youngsters. This programme will now be run under the banner of Junoon's ARTS AT PLAY -- keeping the original vision, and building on our existing team of super conductors.

This year, we are delighted to offer 45 workshops across 5 venues in Mumbai and a season of plays -- 49 shows of 18 plays -- at Prithvi Theatre. This will run from mid-April to early June -- details are up on our site, and forms will be available, as usual from 1st April.

Do visit our website www.junoontheatre.org -- to know more about our dreams and plans, and to get details of ARTS AT PLAY. And if you share our dream, get involved, come for our programmes, spread the word -- and help us infuse the arts into our lives.

With warm regards,
Sanjna & Sameera