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Hyderabad|India:
The third
Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize was presented by eminent poet and New
York City-based scholar, Meena Alexander on January 17, 2012 as part
of the Hyderabad Literary Festival held at Taramati Baradari. The
award, consis of a citation and Rs.10,000 cash prize.
The
winner is 26-year old Aditi Rao, who is a writer, educator, and
activist, lives in Delhi where she works as a consultant in the
field of peace education. Aditi has spent the last eight years
traveling between India, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States;
all the places, cultures, and languages she has encountered on this
journey have had a profound influence on her writing and her
life. She also facilitates creative writing workshops at
educational institutions, and carves out time for her twin passions
of poetry and pottery. She holds a MFA degree in Creative Writing
from Sarah Lawrence College (New York).
The
Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize was instituted by the Hyderabad-based
Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust to recognize excellence in poetry
written in English and is jointly administered by the Department of
English, University of Hyderabad. This year a jury, consisting of
poet, fiction writer, translator, critic, and IIT-Madras faculty K.
Srilata, Prof. Syed Mujeebuddin and Prof. Sachidananda Mohanty of
the University of Hyderabad, selected Aditi Rao from a field of 200
poets in the age group of 20-40 years from all over the country.
The
Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust was started in the year 2000 to
perpetuate the memory of the poet, Srinivas Rayaprol (a.k.a. R.S.
Marthandam, 1925-1998), who was one of the significant personalities
of the early Indian English Poetry in India. The inaugural prize
was awarded in 2009 to Aditi Machado and in 2010 to Hemant Mohapatra. |
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