Anandamandir is pleased to invite nominations for the 2013 Gayatri Memorial Awards for Literary Excellence. These awards were established by Jerry GaMarsh in 2010 to honor his late wife, Gayatri GaMarsh, who was a highly talented author, artist and sculptor and a warmly regarded member of the Ananda Mandir community in NJ. Two awards are given every year, and each winner receives $500 in cash and a commemorative plaque.
The winners of 2011 awards were Gouri Datta of Massachusetts (for her creative writings in Bengali) and Tathagata Ghosh of New Jersey (for his creative writings in English). In 2012, the awards were given to Eva Khashnobish of Delhi, India (Bengali) and Bakul Banerjee of Illinois (English) and Kooheli Chatterji (English).
Authors who have published creative writings in periodicals (and websites) published in North America are encouraged to submit nominations per the guidelines given below. Third-party nominations are welcome but concurrence of the nominated authors must be obtained in advance.
An author may nominate himself/herself — or may be nominated by third parties. The nomination must be supported by photocopies of two (and only two) essays, poems, short stories or plays published in North America-based Bengali or English magazines. The two supporting publications can be of the same type or of different types (e.g.., one poem and one short story). Unpublished works of literature will not be accepted. Full publication references must be submitted for the articles submitted with each nomination. Articles published in magazines outside of North America will not be considered.
Nominated authors must be 18 years or older. Each of their published articles (prose or poems), submitted with their nominations, should be relatively short (no more than 5 or 6 printed pages in length).
Nominations should include short biographies of the authors. Judging, however, will be based primarily on the two supporting publications. Judges’ decisions will be final.
Members of the Awards & Recognition Subcommittee and the judges cannot submit nominations for themselves nor can they be nominated by third parties.
Deadline for nominations (with supporting documents) for the 2013 awards: July 31, 2013. Awards will be announced and presented in the Fall of 2013.
Please send nominations (with supporting documents) to
Debajyoti Chatterji
77 Mackenzie Lane South
Denville, NJ 07834
In case of questions, please email Debajyoti Chatterji (debsmee572@gmail.com) or
Guru Chakravarty (guruchakravarty@yahoo.com).