The city witnessed a confluence of literature and art at The Wise Owl Literary Awards on Saturday. A Bharatanatyam performance was delivered by Mugdha Asnikar. Rachna Singh, founding editor of The Wise Owl, delivered the welcome address, setting the stage for a series of discussions with award winners and jury members.
The awards were presented in three categories: poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. “Anthropocene” by Sudeep Sen won the poetry award. Smitha Sehgal’s “How Women Become Poems in Malabar” was the 1st runner-up, and Rochelle Potkar’s “Coins in Rivers” was the 2nd runner-up. In fiction, Shinie Antony’s “Eden Abandoned” secured the top honour, with “The Blue Bar” by Damyanti Biswas and “Taxi” by Manjula Padmanabhan as the runners-up. The non-fiction category recognised “I am a Runner” by Sohini Chattopadhyay as the winner, with “Sacred Sins” by Arun Ezhuthachan and “An Inky Paradise” by Pradeep Sebastian securing the runner-up positions.
The winners received a ₹25,000 cheque, while the runners-up were honoured with plaques and scrolls. The evening concluded with a medley of dance pieces by Asnikar, followed by closing remarks by Harmeet Singh, co-founder of The Wise Owl. A celebratory supper was attended by literary luminaries and book lovers from the city.