COMING SOON!
2024 Deodar-BLF Prize Anthology

Featuring the best ten stories from the second edition of the Deodar prize, this anthology is a collection of sparkling voices from different parts of India.

Winner and Runners-up

Winner

Ateendriya
Gupta

For 'The Pilgrim'

Ateendriya is a writer, editor, communication consultant, and animal rescuer. Her writing has appeared in The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, and Hindustan Times. In 2023, she was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. She lives in Delhi with her five rescue cats.
 

 

Runner-up

Bashari
Chakraborti

For 'Mei’s Wallet'

Bashari Chakraborti makes a living by crunching financial numbers in the corporate world, but the world of words fascinates her. Her love for reading led her to dabble in writing as she practiced her craft on “bashariblog,” authored her first novel, “My Slice of the Sky,” and penned several short stories. Always on the lookout for stories, she draws her plots from the nooks and crannies of everyday life.

 

Runner-up

Ritika
Bali

For 'Anu’s Beauty Parlour'

Ritika Bali is a short story writer from Lucknow and a recent MFA graduate from Miami University. Her work has been featured in Mistake House, Kitaab, The Punch Magazine, and more. She is the winner of this year’s Literature Live! MyStory Contest (Jury's Pick) and the runner-up for the 2024 Ruskin Bond Literary Award. Her novel-in-progress excerpt was shortlisted for the 2024 Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund Writers Scholarship. Besides brewing stories, Ritika enjoys café-hopping and plotting her next weekend getaway.
 

 

Special Mentions

'Dark Room'
Ashmita Chhabria

'Laughter under Refuge'
Vikram Mervyn

Shortlist 2024

'A World Without Alan'
Shambhobi Ghosh
Shantiniketan 

'Before The Candle March'
Rehana Sulthana
Bhubaneswar
 
'Mei's Wallet'
Bashari Chakraborti
Bengaluru
'Unwomaned'
Ananya Mahapatra
Delhi
 
'Box-shaped Heads with Pigtails'
Sumanya Velamur
Bengaluru

'The Room With a Terrace' 
Tejaswini Kale
Karjat

'Laughter Under Refuge'
Vikram Mervyn
Chennai
'The Pilgrim'
Ateendriya Gupta
Delhi
 
'The Man of The Shrine'
Revathi Raghunath
Bengaluru
 
'Spatial Reasoning'
Vikram Shah
Mumbai
 
'The Gods of Middle Income Households'
Dev Kakkar
Delhi
'Reincarnation at Silk Board Junction '
Abhinav Thanda
Bengaluru

'Dark Room'
Ashmita Chhabria
Chennai-Bangalore

'Anu's Beauty Parlor'
Ritika Bali
Lucknow

Jury 2024

Rahul Soni

Rahul Soni is a writer, editor and translator. As Associate Publisher – Literary at HarperCollins India, he has published several award-winning books by authors both established and new. He was previously associated with the literary agency Writer’s Side, the writer’s residency Sangam House, the journal of translation Asymptote, and Almost Island, a space for avant-garde writing. He was also co-founder of the pioneering multilingual literary journal Pratilipi and the imprint Pratilipi Books. 

 

Samhita Arni

Samhita Arni has been passionate about storytelling ever since the age of eight, when she started writing her first book, The Mahabharata – A Child’s View, which went on to be published in eight languages, and sold over 60,000 copies. Her second book, Sita’s Ramayana, a collaboration with artist Moyna Chitrakar, went on to be a New York Times Bestseller. She’s also the author of The Missing Queen, and The Prince, the winner of the prestigious 2020 Neev Book Prize, now optioned to be turned into a web series. Samhita has been recognized by India Today magazine as one of "The Next 100 Young Achievers who symbolize India Tomorrow."

 

Aditya Rawal

Aditya Rawal is a writer and actor from Mumbai. He graduated from the Dramatic Writing MFA Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and has written multiple feature films; Panipat, Dear Father and Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai, due for a 2024 release. Aditya’s play, The Queen, received the Best Original Script prize at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, 2017. His next play, Siachen, premiered in Mumbai, in June 2023.