There is no vouching for literary lists—or awards. Chetan Bhagat, whose Five Point Someone—What not to do at IIT became, after being rejected by nine publishers, something of a runaway bestseller, has been awarded Society magazine's Young Achiever award in the literature category. More surprising than winning the award was the competition Bhagat was up against. Among the contenders were Commonwealth prizewinner Vikram Chandra (Red Earth and Pouring Rain; Love and Longing in Bombay) and Suketu Mehta, likened to V.S. Naipaul and Arundhati Roy for his debut Maximum City.
Hope at last for all those who've burnt their fingers entering literary competitions on the net. Remember that letter in the mail congratulating you on being one of the winners? Followed soon by a letter asking you to send an impossible amount of dollars for the pleasure of receiving your own poem in a published volume? Well those days may soon be over, thanks to Bangalore-based fledgling publishing house Unisun Publications. Publishers Annie and P. Chandy Mathew have set up interactive website www. unisun4writers.com that offers attractive cash prizes of up to Rs 1 lakh for the best writing in several categories: short story, flash fiction, poetry, travel and humour. Plus the promise of publication.
