Rainbow Lit Awards Reclaims Space For Queer Community Through Literature And Journalism

The Rainbow Awards for Literature and Festival on Thursday launched its first edition opening entries from May 19 to July 18, 2023. The award function will be held during the Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive on December 9 and December 10 in Delhi.

The purpose of the awards is to recognize honest, compelling, and unadulterated storytelling around LGBTQIA+ lives by Indian queer and cishet writers. It further pushes to create a genre that builds awareness across society as well as provides the queer community with a sense of belonging. 

The jury this year comprises author-activist Parmesh Shahani, senior journalist Adrija Bose, writer and translator Anish Gawande, art-historian, author and curator Dr Alka Pande, actor, artist and writer Jyotsna Siddharth, transgender rights activist Kalki Subramaniam, author Parvati Sharma, journalist, writer and translator Poonam Saxena, and author-researcher Sindhu Rajasekaran. Queer rights activist, lawyer, and bioethicist Rohin Bhatt will act as coordinator of the awards.

Speaking about the Awards, the Founder, Sharif D Rangnekar said, “Queer life has been erased from our history for far too long. It is only over the past few decades that some folks have stepped up and written freely. It is essential that we build on the momentum set post the reading down of Section 377 so that we can claim and reclaim our space through literature and journalism which becomes part of history and the now.”