2023 Deodar-BLF Prize Anthology

Featuring the best ten stories from the first edition of the Deodar prize, this anthology is a collection of sparkling voices from different parts of India. Join us in supporting new writing : read here for free, or write to us for print copies at [email protected]

Winner and Runners-up

Winner

Srividya
Tadepalli

For 'Funeral for a Demon'

Srividya is a writer and educator based in Chennai. Her writing has appeared in Aleph Book Company's anthology, A Case of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories from the Country's Finest New Writers, edited by David Davidar; and in Helter Skelter's Anthology of New Writing, Volume 5.

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Runner-up

Samruddhi
Ghodgaonkar

For 'Bats of Paradise'

Samruddhi is an aspiring novelist and short story writer. Her short stories and literary reviews have appeared in The Inklette Magazine, Usawa Literary Review, The Bombay Literary Magazine, The Chakkar and others. She also has a monthly newsletter called ‘Experiments in Fiction’ on Substack.

→Read the story

 

Runner-up

Ratul
Ghosh

For 'Ants'

Ratul Ghosh spent most of his left-brained life in the C-Suite across boring conglomerates and clueless startups, creating presentations with no power and no point. But, he loves the poets, from Elliot to Bukowsky, Ginsberg and Leonard Cohen, to Vikram Seth; and the writers who mix the real and imaginary worlds, like Pratchett, Gaiman and Murakami.

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Special Mentions

'Lambs in September'
Sourabh Gupta
Noida
'The Older Woman'
Srila Roy
Johannesburg, South Africa
'Appetite'
Chirag Tulsiani
Kolkata

Shortlist 2023

'Lake Saroma'
Supreet Saini
Mumbai

'Mute'
Spandan Rana
Bengaluru
 
'Gestating'
Unmana
Mumbai
 
'Amphibians by Night'
Malcolm Carvalho
Bengaluru
 
'Your children are not your own'
Reha Mitra
Mumbai
'The Jam Boy'
Praveen K
Trivandrum

'Under Pressure' 
Sukrit Nagaraj
Mumbai

'Roots'
Ava Arjun
Kochi

'The January Night'
Shambhobi Ghosh
Santiniketan
 
'The Three Unsaid Words'
Satyen K. Bordoloi
Mumbai
'Ants'
Ratul Ghosh
Bengaluru
 
'Appetite'
Chirag Tulsiani
Kolkata
 
'Bats of Paradise'
Samruddhi Ghodgaonkar
Jalgaon
 
'Funeral for a Demon'
Srividya Tadepalli
Chennai
 
'The Older Woman'
Srila Roy
Johannesburg, South Africa
'Gustakh Radio'
Amit Singh
Mumbai

'Lambs in September'
Sourabh Gupta
Noida

'Miss Morphine'
Ananya Mahapatra
Delhi
 
'Oranges for Thangam'
Angel Kolady
Bengaluru
 
'One fell in my neighbours garden' 
Kshitij Bahl
Gurgaon

Jury 2024

Ajitha G.S

Ajitha G.S. is the publisher of the Context imprint at Westland Books, an award-winning independent publisher.

 

Rohan Narula

Rohan is an Adjunct Lecturer at NYU-Tisch, where he teaches Screenwriting. He has co-written three features with Vishal Bhardwaj (including Khufiya, a Netflix original releasing in 2023). Currently, he is writing feature films for Abhishek Kapoor’s Guy In The Sky Pictures, Siddharth Anand’s Marflix Films, Pritish Nandy Communications and Dharma Productions respectively.

 

Devika Rege

Devika Rege was born and raised in Pune. Her first novel Quarterlife was published in June 2023 by Fourth Estate, HarperCollins. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has been a fellow in residence at Yaddo and MacDowell. She currently teaches creative writing at Azim Premji University.

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