Surely Worth a read

Continuing its effort to encourage literary activities in the city through poetry reading sessions,seminars on latest literary trends,book reading sessions,the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (CSA) has now introduced a grants-in-aid programme for writers working or residing in Chandigarh. For this,CSA has invited city-based writers to submit their unpublished book-length manuscripts of short stories,poetry and novels in Hindi,English,Punjabi or Urdu. “The works will be evaluated and the best entries will be given financial assistance to publish their works,” informs Prof Manju Jaidka,Chairperson of CSA. While poetry collections have to be at least 50 pages in length,fiction and novel should be at least 100-pages-long. To promote the local talent,the CSA also publishes anthologies of the works of city-based writers,with four each in Hindi and Punjabi published last year. This year’s anthology of local writings — poetry,prose,fiction — was published in English. The entries may be submitted at the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi office on the first floor of the State Library,Sector 34,and the deadline is September 30.