Asia Writes

18 August 2013

Deadline: 31 January 2014

The Charles Pick South Asian Fellowship is a six-month residential creative writing fellowship with an award of £10,000. The fellowship began in October 2002.

The Charles Pick South Asian Fellowship seeks to encourage the spirit of writing by giving support to the work of a new and, as yet, unpublished writer of fictional or non-fictional prose based in South Asia. The writer should be from South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Burma/Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), but does not need to be domiciled there.

Application forms must be submitted with an original typescript of 2,500 words. All applicants must provide a reference from an editor, agent or accredited teacher of creative writing.

All application forms and full details are available here.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions: charlespickfellowship@uea.ac.uk

Applications: Fellowship Administrator, The Charles Pick Fellowship, South Asia School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom

Website: http://www.uea.ac.uk/literature/fellowships/

30 May 2013

Deadline: 14 June 2013

StupidBird is an online zine started by a group of people that loves reading humor in all its forms. We are trying to put together a magazine that showcases the works of writers who have a flair for writing humor. We seriously feel there is fast developing a taste for such writing and we'd like to see that for ourselves through this magazine.

Only a few days old, StupidBird is currently seeking writers to contribute to its first edition with short humorous stories. We are seeking previously unpublished work. Stories published only on your personal blog can be sent as well.

Here's a link to the e-zine: www.stupidbird.in. It's still in the developing stages and we should be up and running by July, which is when we plan to roll out the first edition. Please refer to the complete set of guidelines given below.

GUIDELINES:

• Only short fiction stories, not exceeding 2000 words in length will be accepted. Types of humor can range from anecdotal and situational to satirical, tongue-in-cheek parodies.
• Writers must be from/based in the Indian subcontinent.
• Writers will retain all rights to their submitted stories. We are seeking previously unpublished work. Stories published only on your personal blog can be sent as well.
• If you are writing in, kindly let us know before the deadline by mailing us at edit@stupidbird.in.
• Final entries should be sent to edit@stupidbird.in on or before June 14th, 2013. Please state your full name in your email. Do include a photograph and a short bio of yourself (two or three lines; written in third-person).

In case of any questions, feel free to get in touch with us at edit@stupidbird.in. We are eager to flag this journey off with a lot of keen writers. Looking forward to your submissions!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions/ submissions: edit@stupidbird.in

Website: http://www.stupidbird.in/

28 March 2013

Deadline: 30 March 2013

The juried journal of the South Asian Literary Association, invites submissions for its 2013 Special Topic Issue, Volume 34, Number 1, devoted to Salman Rushdie’s literary career, thought, and artistry. Born in the year of India’s Independence, and now arrived at 65, Rushdie has recently published his long-awaited account of missing years, Joseph Anton: A Memoir. The title Joseph (Conrad) Anton (Chekov) offers some clues to the literary masters of his soul. It seems we have arrived at the appropriate moment to take stock of Salman Rushdie’s literary status and unique achievement.

The special issue devoted to his work in many genres aims at a summative assessment of Rushdie’s achievement as a story-writer, fabulator, allegorist, myth-maker, and political commentator on post-national societies. The articles invited may limit themselves exclusively to a single genre of Rushdie’s writing, a group of works, or a combination of forms. Since his travel writing and essays have escaped critical attention, the journal welcomes articles on such works as well. Suggested topics of interest may include:

• Children of Midnight’s Children (Problems of Diaspora, Hybridity, Identity, Gender, and Sexuality)
• The Most Important Work of Rushdie: A Comparative Estimate
• Rushdie and Naipaul (or any other novelist)
• Rushdie’s Complicity with Market Forces(Brennan, Ahmad, and Trivedi)
• Rushdie and Women
• Rushdie, Postcoloniality and Postmodernity
• Rushdie’s Historiography and New Historicism
• Midnight’s Children as an Epic Novel
• Any significant Rushdie topic of your choice

Letters of interest and a brief cv by March 30. Finished articles of 4,500-7,500 words, prepared in accordance with the MLA style (7th ed.), along with abstracts of approximately 100 words and biographical notes of approximately 50 words, should be received electronically by July 15, 2013.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: chauhanp@comcast.net

Website: http://www.southasianliteraryassociation.org/south-asian-review/

15 March 2013

Deadline: 15 July 2013

The DWL annual short story competition aims to encourage fiction writing and promote new writers. Now in its second year, the competition is open to writers of all ages around the world.

The top three entries will be published in the next issue of Papercuts magazine and will receive copies of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia - the new, critically acclaimed novel by Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid. Of these, one lucky winner will be selected for the 50,000 PKR Dastaan Award*, a new writing prize being offered by DWL in partnership with a benefactor.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• The stories may follow any theme, but should not be more than 5,000 words.
• Only one entry per person will be accepted.
• Entries should be in English.
• Please only submit original stories.
• Please do not submit previously published material.
• Please send your entries only as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) attachments. Each story must have a title.
• Each document should be named clearly with the title of the story plus the name of the author. No page numbering, headers or footers, please. Text must be received in the following format: a single-spaced, left-aligned document with Georgia size-12 font.

Send your entries to the editor with "Short Story" in the subject line.

THE DASTAAN AWARD (Est. 2013)

Desi Writers Lounge is proud to announce that as of this year it will be offering a prize of 50,000 PKR to one selected winner of its annual Short Story Competition.

The prize has been set up by Mr. Ali Azfar and his wife Afia Aslam to support new writing and can be awarded to a writer based anywhere in the world. The founders are veteran supporters of DWL and have generously chosen to offer the prize in partnership with us.

At present, the award is only available for original, unpublished short stories submitted through the DWL short story competition. The deadline for submissions for this competition is July 15th, 2013. The winner of the Dastaan Award will be notified by September 15th, 2013.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net

Website: http://desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts/

25 February 2013

Deadline: 8 March 2013

Applications for the PANOS climate change journalism fellowship will be accepted until March 8th. The previous deadline was February 18, 2013.

The fellowship seeks to enhance climate change awareness and understanding among journalists in South Asia. The fellows will have the opportunity to participate in a training workshop and field trip that will link them with their peers from the neighbouring countries and understand climate-related issues from a South Asian perspective. Journalists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka may apply.

The rest of the guidelines for applications remains the same. Read the previous announcement here.

18 February 2013

Deadline: 22 February 2013

Panos South Asia invites applications for the South Asia Climate Change Award (SACCA) Fellowships for the year 2013.

The fellowships are being offered by Panos South Asia as part of a Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) project for enhancing climate change awareness and understanding among journalists in South Asia.

Applications are invited from print, television, radio and web journalists writing / reporting on climate change and environment issues from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The fellowships will support writing / reporting stories on climate change from the region. The fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in a training workshop and field trip that will link them with their peers from the neighbouring countries and understand climate-related issues from a South Asian perspective.

Applicants should have a strong motivation for working on climate change related issues in South Asia and should have worked on climate-related stories in their media.

The application, by e-mail, would need to include the following:

• A covering letter, in which the applicant explains his/her motivation for applying for the fellowship, and how he/she would use the fellowship to build on previous experience (two to three pages).
• A detailed CV with the names and contact details of two references.
• Copies of two stories published on climate change or environment. TV/radio journalists can also provide the link to the programme.
• A copy of a scanned letter from the editor of the applicant’s publication, TV or radio channel supporting the application.

Please write ‘Application for the SACCA Fellowships 2013’ in the subject line of your e-mail application. Only successful applicants will be contacted.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: psa@panossouthasia.org

Website: http://www.panossouthasia.org/

13 February 2013

Deadline: 15 March 2013

This call for papers is for a joint session of SALA and South Asian Languages and Literatures (SALL) at MLA 2014.

The theme is “South Asian Diasporas beyond the US”: Intersections, parallels, and tensions between South Asians and other Groups outside the US, including Australia, Africa, and South East Asia.

Send 150-word abstracts to quazi@tarleton.edu by March 15.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: quazi@tarleton.edu

Website: http://www.mla.org

07 February 2013

Jaggery is an unrefined dark brown sugar, made from palm sap or sugarcane. The word jaggery comes from the Portuguese jágara, and from the Malayalam chakkara and Sanskrit sarkara (gritty substance, sugar) before that; its first known use was in 1631.

For the relaunch of DesiLit Magazine, we wanted to choose a new, more evocative, name — a name that evoked South Asia, but also the shared colonial history of South Asian nations and the contribution that South Asian languages have made to English, the primary language of our journal.

We considered many options, such as calico, juggernaut, pyjama, teak — there are hundreds of words that have immigrated to English from a variety of South Asian languages. Some of the words were problematic — mango, for example, has been sadly overused for South Asia in general (and for South Asian women and their breasts in particular). Cashmere holds connotations of wealth and privilege that we thought it best to avoid. Bangle feels explicitly feminine, or possibly queer, and while we’re certainly open to such writing, we don’t plan to exclusively focus on it.

Jaggery, though, offers a treasure of richly relevant significance. Jaggery is often used in place of refined sugar as a more accessible, cheaper, and healthier sweetener. In colonial times, it was the choice of the poor (which was almost everyone brown, relatively speaking) — those who had no access to the refined sugar of the colonizers could still sweeten their lives with jaggery.

It’s used in both sweet and savory dishes; a pinch of jaggery is sometimes added to sambar, dal, and other Indian staples — a sweet element balancing the spicy, salty and sour components. Jaggery contains many minerals not found in ordinary sugar, and is considered beneficial to health by the traditional Ayurvedic medical system.

Jaggery is also life-giving, and soul-sustaining. In rural Maharashtra and Karnataka, water and a piece of jaggery are given when someone comes home from working under a hot sun. All over India, jaggery has religious significance; many festivals involve the offering of jaggery to deities during worship. Jaggery is considered auspicious in many parts of South Asia, and is eaten raw before the commencement of good work or any important new venture, or after good news is shared by family and friends.

In my childhood, jaggery was precious, something my immigrant mother couldn’t easily get, that she hoarded for rare use. It came molded in dark brown, hard hemispheres of sugar, and I was addicted to the taste. As a little girl, I would sneak into the kitchen at night to carve off pieces with a knife — tiny chunks, in the hopes that she wouldn’t catch me. I would put the fragments on my tongue, close my eyes, and luxuriate in their brief, intense flavor, before they dissolved completely, leaving me hungering for more.

For many of us in the diaspora, our connection to our home cultures can feel similarly fragmentary, shattered, evanescent. I write about Sri Lanka again and again, in an effort to connect with, to understand, the country that gave birth to me. We hesitated about choosing a food term for the magazine, since food is in some ways such a cliché referent to the exotic, the alien. But food is also one of the most direct paths home for the immigrant, the descendant, who pores over fragmentary notes in old cookbooks, trying to reconstruct the flavors of generations past.

Perhaps Jaggery will offer a path of connection between diaspora writers and homeland writers; we also welcome non-South Asians with a deep and thoughtful connection to South Asian countries, who bring their own intersecting perspectives to the conversation. Our hope with Jaggery is to create a journal that offers the best writing by and about South Asians and their diaspora. Dark, complex, intense — and hopefully delicious.

SUBMISSIONS:

Jaggery plans to launch its first issue in 2013; Mary Anne Mohanraj will be serving as editor-in-chief. We are currently putting together our editorial team, and will be holding a Kickstarter shortly to raise funds. If you’re interested in volunteering with either project, please feel free to drop us a line.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: mohanraj@mamohanraj.com

Website: http://jaggerylit.com

25 January 2013

Deadline: 15 May 2013

Papercuts is the bi-annual literary magazine of Desi Writers Lounge – an online workshop for writers of South Asian origin and writing on South Asia. Submissions are now open for Volume 12.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Submissions are open to the public. The magazine is available for everyone to read free of cost and is advertisement free, therefore we are unable to pay for submissions. If your work is selected for publication, however, we do promise to help you edit it with a dedicated editor and to promote it. We do not charge for either service.

2. Please note that there is a theme for each issue. The theme for Volume 12 is Dog Eat Dog. Send us your poems, stories and essays on ruthlessness.

3. Submissions for the July issue are open until May 15th. Only entries that get selected will be acknowledged. If selected, you can usually expect to hear back from the editorial team within two to three weeks. Selection and post-selection editing does not guarantee publication – final inclusion will be determined by editors.

4. You may submit as many entries as you wish. Each submission should be emailed separately with 'Submission: [specify poetry/prose/article] - [insert title]' in the subject header. The file should be named clearly with the title of the submission plus the name of the author.

5. Each document should have the title clearly written at the top of the first page. No page numbering, headers or footers, please. Text must be received in the following format: a single-spaced, left-aligned document in MS Word with Georgia size-12 font. If there are any special formatting requirements for presenting a poem, please state them clearly in your email and we will try to accommodate them.

6. There is no strict word limit, but it is recommended that articles and features not exceed 1000 to 1500 words. Similarly, it is recommended that stories not exceed 3000 to 3500 words.

7. Author bios are an essential requirement for any piece to be published. Any issues with anonymity should be discussed with the editor in initial correspondence.

8. All work submitted must be original. Any evidence of plagiarism will result in immediate removal of the author’s work from the magazine, and blacklisting from further publication in Papercuts.

9. In the event that a piece is submitted simultaneously to this magazine as well as another, please indicate this clearly and notify us immediately if you are taking up an offer of publication elsewhere. Writers are, however, requested to respect the editing team’s time and not to withdraw material once the editing process has begun. Commissioned articles will be considered the property of this magazine and must not be submitted elsewhere.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net

Website: http://desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts/

08 October 2012

Deadline: 15 November 2012

Papercuts is the bi-annual literary magazine of Desi Writers Lounge – an online workshop for writers of South Asian origin and writing on South Asia. Both DWL and Papercuts are run entirely on a voluntary basis.

The theme for Volume 11 is Prequel. Our editors are looking for material that uncovers the back-story; that returns to the point where everything started. The origins of a movement, the birth of a star, the beginnings of love, the setting of the stage for death, or the unwritten Chapter Zero of a great work of literature. Tell us what happened first.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• Submissions are open to the public. This is a not-for-revenue venture, therefore we are unable to pay for submissions. If your work is selected for publication, however, we do promise to help you edit it and promote it.

• For the January issue, submissions must be received by 15th November. After one-on-one editing with a designated member of the editorial team, your submission must be ready for selection by 30th December. Submissions for the July issue must be received by 15th May and work with the editors must be completed by 30th June. Submission and editing does not guarantee publication – final inclusion will be determined by editors.

• You may submit as many entries as you wish. Each submission should be emailed separately with 'Submission: [specify poetry/prose/article] - [insert title]' in the subject header. The file should be named clearly with the title of the submission plus the name of the author.

• Each document should have the title clearly written at the top of the first page. No page numbering, headers or footers, please. Text must be received in the following format: a single-spaced, left-aligned document in MS Word with Georgia size-12 font. If there are any special formatting requirements for presenting a poem, please state them clearly in your email and we will try to accommodate them.

• There is no strict word limit, but it is recommended that articles and features not exceed 1000 to 1500 words. Similarly, it is recommended that stories not exceed 3000 to 3500 words.

• Author bios are an essential requirement for any piece to be published. Any issues with anonymity should be discussed with the editor in initial correspondence.

• All work submitted must be original. Any evidence of plagiarism will result in immediate removal of the author’s work from the magazine, and blacklisting from further publication in Papercuts.

• In the event that a piece is submitted simultaneously to this magazine as well as another, please indicate this clearly and notify us immediately if you are taking up an offer of publication elsewhere. Writers are, however, requested to respect the editing team’s time and not to withdraw material once the editing process has begun. Commissioned articles will be considered the property of this magazine and must not be submitted elsewhere.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net

Website: http://www.desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts/

30 September 2012

Submissions are now being taken for the fourth issue of Rangoli, our online magazine.. We are looking for poems, short stories, book reviews, photography, interesting articles and pieces of creative art. We are particularly keen to receive submissions related to South Asian Literature and art forms. Also, we invite your ideas for interviews. Be part of this great magazine which believes in promoting literature and encourages the cause of the written word! For more details and to discuss any queries write to Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Assistant Editor, Rangoli.

We do not pay for the submissions recieved and believe in spreading literature across boundaries. You would have an opportunity to be read widely and be a part of a growing literary community.

About Rangoli : ‘Rangoli’ is Kala Kahani’s much coveted online magazine and operates from the United Kingdom. Kala Kahani meaning ‘the story of art’ is now in its 10th year of providing a forum for specifically South Asian art forms, to promote, develop and cultivate an appreciation of literature, theatre, dance, music and the visual arts.

To view the previous two issues of this journal, visit

• http://forums.charnwoodarts.com/files/rangoli02/rangoli02.pdf
• http://sharedspace.org/filestore/Rangoli03.pdf

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: s.sneha01@yahoo.in

Website: http://www.charnwoodarts.com/projects/kalakahani

09 September 2012

Deadline: 1 October 2012

The Boston-area South Asian Studies Consortium invites papers for its first symposium to be held on November 17, 2012 at MIT. The symposium will be held in memory of the late Jalal Alamgir, professor of political science at UMass-Boston. The purpose of the symposium is to showcase scholarship and foster dialog on South Asian Studies among scholars within the greater metropolitan Boston-area. The Executive Committee encourages submissions that deepen insights into the geopolitical, cultural, historical, social, discursive, and economic understanding of South Asia and its global or diasporic impacts.

Presentations are solicited from all disciplines, from anthropology, art, architecture, history, literature, political science, sociology, theatre, as well as those located in their interstices, including film studies, religious studies, gender and sexuality studies. We are equally interested in papers that engage with the past as well as those that consider histories of the present. Works-in-progress and recently published scholarship are especially welcome.

Please submit 300-word abstracts by e-mail.

AREAS FOR SUBMISSION may include but are not limited to:

• Governance and governmentalities
• Literary, film, media criticism
• Anthropological and sociological ethnographies
• Art, aesthetics, and architecture
• Political formations, institutions, struggles
• Colonial histories and legacies
• Social and political movements
• Policy studies
• Diasporas
• Circulations of finance and capital
• Religious-cultural texts and communities

TIMELINE:

• Deadline for abstracts: October 1, 2012
• Notification of acceptance: October 22, 2012
• Symposium: Saturday, November 17, 2012

Via: BU Center for the Study of Asia

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: southasiastudiesconsortium@gmail.com

Website: http://www.southasiastudies.org/

29 August 2012

Deadline: 31 August 2012

The International Day for Disaster Reduction is a day to celebrate how people and
communities are reducing their risk to disasters and to raise awareness about the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR). In 2012, the theme of IDDR ‘Women and Girls: The Invisible Force of Resilience’ aims to highlight the role that women and girls play in risk reduction. While they are often marginalised and unrecognised, women and girls are powerful ingredients of society who can bring the changes though unique knowledge and skills that are crucial while addressing or managing disaster risks. To commemorate IDDR 2012, it is proposed to conduct a regional essay competition in the SAARC member countries on the theme of the IDDR 2012 selected by UN ISDR ,‘Women and Girls: The Invisible Force of Resilience’.

THEME: The Theme of this year’s competition is ‘Women and Girls: The Invisible Force of Resilience’. The essay should depict the aims to highlight the role that women and girls play in risk reduction.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the regional essay completion are:

• To create awareness among the young generation about disaster risk reduction in the SAARC region;
• To provide an opportunity to the young to observe and respond to the specific issues concerning women and girls on a theme of emerging concern in the region; and
• To promote regional cooperation for DRR among the people of the region.

TARGET GROUP: The competition is open to two categories of age 15-18 years and 19-22 years for the nationals of the Member States of SAARC as of 31 August 2012 which is the deadline of the submission of entry at the national level. In other words, eligible participants would be those that were born from 31-08-1994 to 31-08-1997 for the category 1(12-15 years) and from 31-08-1990 to 31-08-1993 for the category 2(19-22 years).

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES: Essays must be submitted to National Focal Points of the respective country of the participants on or before 31 August 2012. National Focal Points of the member states must submit the 1st winning entry to the SAARC Disaster Management Centre on or before 17 September 2012.

METHOD OF ENTRY

• Language of the essay: Essays can be submitted in respective local languages or in English at the national level, and the National Focal Points on Disaster Management should translate the 1st winning entry in to English and send to the SAARC Disaster Management Centre to seek entry for the Regional competition.
• Word limit :The completed Essay should contain 1000 -1500 words
• The essay should be accompanied by a suitable title not exceeding 10 words.
• The essay should portray the theme - ‘Women and Girls: The Invisible Force of Resilience’ within the SAARC member countries.
• A participant can send only one entry.
• Participant must be a resident of the SAARC member countries, including those citizens of SAARC region residing in other countries.
• All details of the entry form must be completed in English or be accompanied with a translation in English.

PROCEDURE FOR SENDING THE ENTRIES: The essays should be sent along with the entry forms in original on or before 31st August 2012 to the National Focal Points on Disaster Management or any other authority designated by them in the member states. The contact details of the National Focal Points of SDMC in the SAARC member countries are as given below:

AFGHANISTAN Dr. Mohammad Daim Kakar,
Director General,
Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA),
Shah Mohmood Ghazi Watt, Opp. Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan
Email: kmd786@yahoo.com,
janaqa.haidari@gmail.com,
karimi27@yahoo.com

BANGLADESH Mr. Ahsan Zakir
Director General
Disaster Management Bureau,
Disaster Management & Relief Bhawan
4th Floor, 92-93, Mohakali C/A
Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh
Email: dmb@btcl.net.bd

BHUTAN Mr. Chencho Tshering
Department of Disaster Management
Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs,
Post Box No.133 ,Tashichho dzong, Thimphu, Bhutan
Email: chencho@mohca.gov.bt , nwangchuk@mohca.gov.bt

INDIA Mr. R. K. Srivastava,
Joint Secretary (Disaster Management),
Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India New Delhi
E mail: jsdm@nic.in , dirdm3-mha@nic.in

MALDIVES Ms. Fathimath Thasneem
Deputy Minister
National Disaster Management Centre,
H. Rihijehi Koshi
Ameenee Magu
Male’, Republic of Maldives
Email: fathmath.thasneem@ndmc.gov.mv

NEPAL Mr. Lakshmi Prasad Dhakal
Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Home Affairs,
Kathmandu, Nepal,
Email: lxd321@gmail.com , pradipkoirala@yahoo.com

PAKISTAN Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir
Chairman,
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),
Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan,
Email: Chairman@ndma.gov.pk

SRI LANKA Ms. S. M. Mohamed
Secretary,
Ministry of Disaster Management & Human Rights,
Govt. of Sri Lanka, No: 498, R. A. Del Mel, Mawtha,
Colombo-03, Sri Lanka,
Email: siththymarina@yahoo.com
B-Wing, 3 Floor
NDCC Tower Jai Singh Road

FOLLOWING CRITERIA WILL BE ADOPTED FOR ADJUDICATION

Essays should contain:

• Observations on the theme: ‘Women and Girls: The Invisible Force of Resilience’ from SRRAC countries/locations with real life examples where relevant
• An analysis of the main issues highlighted in the essay
• Forward looking and practical recommendations for further improvements

Presentation style

• Focus and relevance to the theme
• Clarity in the build of arguments
• Creative and clear presentation

AWARD AND CERTIFICATE OF MERIT

Winners at both national and regional level shall receive awards and certificate of merit as under:

Categories 1 and 2 Prizes

• 1st Prize Regional Winner: 500 USD, Certificate
• 2nd Prize Regional Winner: 300 USD, Certificate
• 3rd Prize Regional Winner: 200 USD, Certificate
• All National Winners: 100 USD (to be mobilized by National Focal points), Certificates

Member States may consider providing additional prizes/rewards for their respective national winners.

1st and 2nd place Winners of the Regional competition will be invited to join the annual event at United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand on 12th October 2012. Their travel and accommodation costs will be covered by UNISDR Asia Pacific Secretariat.

FOR DETAILS CONTACT:

Mr. Singye Dorji,
Director (ENB)
SAARC Secretariat,
Tridevi Marg, P.O. Box 4222,
Kathmandu,Nepal
Phone: : 00977-1–4228929, Fax: 00977-1–4227033,
email: dirbhu@saarc-sec.org
Website: www.saarc-sec.org

Dr. Satendra, IFS
Director,
SAARC Disaster Management Centre,
NIDM Building, IIPA Campus,
5-B, I.P. Estate, MG Road, New Delhi-110002.
Phone: 0091-11-23702445, Fax: 0091-11-23702446
E-mail: dir.sdmc@gmail.com
Website: www.saarc-sdmc.nic.in

Mr. Jerry Velasquez,
Senior Regional Coordinador,
Email: velasquezg@un.org

Ms. Madhavi Ariyabandu,
Regional Programme Officer,
UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction for Asia & the
Pacific (UNISDR-AP),
UNESCAP Building - 8th Floor, Section-A,
Rajdamnern Nok Avenue – 10200,
Bangkok -Thailand
Email: ariyabandu@un.org,
Website: www.un.org

Download: entry form, concept note

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: dirbhu@saarc-sec.org

For submissions: see list of contact persons by country above

Website: http://saarc-sdmc.nic.in/

28 August 2012

Deadline: 30 September 2012

Sagar seeks innovative academic writings on the history, society, culture, literature, religion, economics, technology and media of South Asia. The journal was established in 1993 and is published annually online and in print by The South Asia Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. As of August 2012, we have made the transition to peer-reviewed status. Submissions are now coordinated by an editorial collective of UT graduate students and blindly evaluated by an editorial board of advanced scholars in the field. In addition to continuing to publish full-length research articles of the highest quality, we are pleased to introduce two new features in our 2013 issue. For the first, we seek original translations of fiction and non-fiction prose and poetry from South Asian languages to English. For the second, we request response essays of 1500 words or less that consider single texts. Guidelines on length and formatting are provided below.

With the introduction of these new elements, Sagar will allow scholars of South Asia to experiment with new styles of writing. Our translation feature will familiarize scholars of particular linguistic regions of South Asia to new literatures, both popular and literary. Such exposure will facilitate comparison, perhaps drawing out common currents in the literatures of South Asia. For the English language reader, this feature will showcase writings outside the commonly translated canons of South Asian literature. Our second new feature, the response essay, will allow for continuous reflection on images, speeches, exhibits, performances, architecture, songs, and the like. Here, we are not looking for responses to scholarly writings (i.e. book reviews); rather, we encourage scholars to venture outside their areas of specialization, to intervene with timely responses to current events, or take the first steps along the way to future scholarly projects.

In all cases, we encourage writings that are theoretically driven and empirically grounded and take advantage of our online format through hyperlinks, color images, and embedded video and audio.

Guidelines for Submission:

We accept submissions for our annual issues every September and response pieces for online publication throughout the year. Manuscripts should follow the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Entire essays, including block quotations and notes, should be double-spaced. Remove any identifying information so that submission is suitable for anonymous review.

• Full-length research articles: Full-length-articles should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words and should include a one-paragraph article abstract.
• Original translations: Translations should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words and should be preceded by a 300-600 word introduction that contextualizes the text or excerpt.
• Response essays: Responses should be 1500 words or less, and where applicable should include an image or recording of the work to which you are responding.

Please submit electronic copies of papers saved as Microsoft Word file. Send electronic manuscripts and/or questions to our e-mail address. All submissions for inclusion in the 2013 issue are due by September 30th, 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: sagarjournal@gmail.com

Website: http://sagarjournal.wordpress.com/

22 August 2012

Deadline: 7 September 2012

The SAJA-Knowledge@Wharton scholarship was established in 1999 in collaboration with the South Asian Journalists Association, an organization of more than 800 journalists of South Asian origin in the U.S. and Canada. This unique scholarship program is designed to enhance the quality of minority business journalism. It provides a member of SAJA (as well as up to one journalist each belonging to AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ, NAJA) with a scholarship to attend Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists in Philadelphia.

Each scholarship (which covers cost of tuition, course materials and most meals) is worth about $1,995 and is furnished by Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The award does NOT cover travel to and from Philadelphia or lodging. The Award is presented by SAJA and Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School's research and business analysis journal. SAJA is responsible for the administrative process and works with the other groups representing journalists to select the winners. It reserves the right not to award a scholarship.

Who Can Apply? Any member of SAJA, AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ, NAJA who is a reporter, editor or producer (including freelancers) currently living in the United States or Canada and working in business journalism or a field that overlaps, such as healthcare or technology. Applicants must be available to attend the Wharton program this year. Individuals between two-seven years of experience as a business reporter or those new to business reporting, but with five-10 years of experience as a reporter in another field, are encouraged to apply. Freelancers are welcome to apply.

Winners will be informed September 14, 2012

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: contact SAJA Wharton Director, Aseem Chabra, at chhabs@aol.com

For submissions: via the online application form (tick 'SAJA-Knowledge@Wharton Scholarship for Minority Journalists' under Financial Assistance section)

Website: http://saja.org/

18 August 2012

Deadline: 1 December 2012

This anthology of critical essays will cover the English-language poetry of South Asians both in the subcontinent as well as in the globally distributed locations of the South Asian diaspora from the early nineteenth century to the second decade of the 21st century. The essays may cover literary movements, poetic manifestoes, genres of poetry, style and language in South Asian poetry in English, the contributions of individual poets, comparative studies of poets and their poems, transnational poetics, poets and poetry from specific countries/regions, the influences of South Asian vernacular literary traditions, and other related topics. (There is an interested academic publisher in the United States.)

THE ANTHOLOGY IS EXPECTED TO COVER THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

• The beginnings of English-language poetry in 19th century India
• The poetry of the colonial period
• Postcolonial poetry in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,Nepal
• The poetry of the South Asian diaspora in the U.K., U.S.A., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Fiji
  

DATES

• Deadline for abstracts: December 1, 2012 (The editors will provide details of length and formatting for accepted papers.)
• Deadline for final drafts of essays: July 15, 2013

PLEASE SEND ABSTRACTS OF 250-300 WORDS TO THE EDITORS:

Dr. Mitali P. Wong
Professor of English
Department of English and Foreign Languages
Claflin University
Orangeburg, SC 29115
wong@claflin.edu
803-535-5221

Dr. Waqas Khwaja
Professor of English
Agnes Scott College
Decatur, GA 30030
wkhwaja@agnesscott.edu
404-471-5056

Please email the editors if you have questions about specific topics and/or poets to be covered.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: wong@claflin.edu or wkhwaja@agnesscott.edu

15 August 2012

Date: 26 - 27 September 2012

The city of Pune which was recently rated as the second best city in India to live in will play the host to this year’s WAN-IFRA India Conference for the first time. WAN-IFRA India 2012, the twentieth annual conference of WAN-IFRA South Asia will be held on September 26-27 at Pune Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre.

THE CONFERENCE WILL HAVE THREE PARALLEL TRACKS:

• Newsroom Summit
• Printing Summit and
• Cross-media Advertising Summit

The programme will discuss the business and technology challenges and provide a direction into the future of the news publishing industry in the region. The conference draws much significance in the backdrop of the digital media revolution facing the South Asian news publishing industry in one hand and the challenge of managing the growth of print media business on the other hand.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS:

The conference will be preceded by 3 pre-conference workshops on the following topics:

• Green Publishing
• Online video production
• Multimedia advertising sales

Info Tables: The event will offer a limited number of info-tables and a variety of sponsorship opportunities to the suppliers industry.

For information on registration rates, click here.

Download: full program

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: v.antony@wan-ifra.org

Website: http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/wan-ifra-india-2012

28 July 2012

Deadline: 30 September 2012

Sagar seeks innovative academic writings on the history, society, culture, literature, religion, economics, technology and media of South Asia. The journal was established in 1993 and is published annually online and in print by The South Asia Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. As of August 2012, we have made the transition to peer-reviewed status. Submissions are now coordinated by an editorial collective of UT graduate students and blindly evaluated by an editorial board of advanced scholars in the field. In addition to continuing to publish full-length research articles of the highest quality, we are pleased to introduce two new features in our 2013 issue. For the first, we seek original translations of fiction and non-fiction prose and poetry from South Asian languages to English. For the second, we request response essays of 1500 words or less that consider single texts. Guidelines on length and formatting are provided below.

With the introduction of these new elements, Sagar will allow scholars of South Asia to experiment with new styles of writing. Our translation feature will familiarize scholars of particular linguistic regions of South Asia to new literatures, both popular and literary. Such exposure will facilitate comparison, perhaps drawing out common currents in the literatures of South Asia. For the English language reader, this feature will showcase writings outside the commonly translated canons of South Asian literature. Our second new feature, the response essay, will allow for continuous reflection on images, speeches, exhibits, performances, architecture, songs, and the like. Here, we are not looking for responses to scholarly writings (i.e. book reviews); rather, we encourage scholars to venture outside their areas of specialization, to intervene with timely responses to current events, or take the first steps along the way to future scholarly projects.

In all cases, we encourage writings that are theoretically driven and empirically grounded and take advantage of our online format through hyperlinks, color images, and embedded video and audio.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION:

We accept submissions for our annual issues every September and response pieces for online publication throughout the year. Manuscripts should follow the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Entire essays, including block quotations and notes, should be double-spaced. Remove any identifying information so that submission is suitable for anonymous review.

(1) Full-length research articles: Full-length-articles should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words and should include a one-paragraph article abstract.

(2) Original translations: Translations should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words and should be preceded by a 300-600 word introduction that contextualizes the text or excerpt.

(3) Response essays: Responses should be 1500 words or less, and where applicable should include an image or recording of the work to which you are responding.

Please submit electronic copies of papers saved as Microsoft Word file. Send electronic manuscripts and/or questions to sagarjournal@gmail.com. All submissions for inclusion in the 2013 issue are due by September 30th, 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: sagarjournal@gmail.com

Website: http://sagarjournal.wordpress.com/

25 July 2012

Deadline: 1 August 2012

The Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize will honor a distinguished work of scholarship in South Asian Studies that promises to define or redefine the understanding of whole subject areas.

The committee particularly seeks nominations of broad scholarly works with innovative approaches that may concern any topic in any discipline or may cross disciplinary lines. The prize recognizes a distinguished scholarly monograph beyond the author or authors' first monograph or published research project. Nominations for the book prize may be made by authors, publishers, or other interested members in the field.

To be eligible, nominated books must be original, scholarly, nonfiction works with a 2011 copyright date, and must be the first publication of this text in English anywhere in the world. Nominated books should be accompanied by a list of the authors' prior publications. The book's subject matter must deal with South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh). Works are not eligible if they are reference works, exhibition catalogs, textbooks, essay collections, poetry, fiction, memoirs, or autobiographies. Translations will be eligible only if they include a substantial introduction, annotation, or critical apparatus. Co-authored books are eligible; edited volumes of essays are not. Presses may nominate up to six titles for the Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Prize.

Nominators must send a copy of each work nominated to each of the three members of the review committee below. These three copies must be received by the committee members no later than AUGUST 1, 2012. The winner will be announced at the AAS conference next spring.

Coomaraswamy Prize Committee:

• Michael Fisher (Chair), Oberlin College, P.O. Box 2075, Wellfleet, MA 02667 (If the books come by UPS: 15 Richman Lane, Wellfleet, MA 02667)
• Raka Ray, UC-Berkeley, 7601 Errol Drive, El Cerrito, CA 94530
• Steven Wilkinson, Yale University, Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics, 31 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: see list of Coomaraswamy Prize Committee members above

Website: http://www.asian-studies.org