NLF Fellowships for Children’s Book Creators
Bengaluru : The Neev Literature Festival (NLF) announces the first-of-its-kind Fellowships for children’s book creators (writers and illustrators) to facilitate high-quality, richly detailed children’s books that authentically mirror Indian lives and experiences. Proposals are invited from children’s book creators to produce a book in any genre that has the power to connect with young readers universally. The NLF Fellowships will support selected book creators with a grant of 6 Lakhs each for a period of one year for researching and writing their book.
Since its inception, the Neev Trust has been consistently working to promote children’s literature in India – with NLF, via its annual Literature Festival, Reading Challenge for children, and the Neev Book Award. The Fellowships for children’s book creators are the next significant step in this direction.
With this novel initiative, NLF aims to facilitate engaging children’s books that capture a slice of India or Indians that is so deeply authentic, moving and immersive that it brings alive an aspect of India—pre and post-Independence. Indian children’s books that are evergreen, classic, and could well be one of the finest stories ever told; that bring alive a story that children, parents, and librarians fall in love with.
The NLF Fellowships for Children’s Book Creators aim to enrich the Indian children’s books space by helping build and nurture a high-quality body of work over time.
According to Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, Co-Founder, Neev Literature Festival, “In a fragmented market that is swamped with international children’s literature and a publishing ecosystem that has traditionally under invested in Children’s literature from India, the NLF Fellowships aim to fill a gap that will hopefully encourage Indian writers to embark on imaginative, ambitious and research-driven literature for Indian audiences that is rooted in Indianness.”
Apart from the financial support, the NLF Fellowships will provide mentorship and editorial support, ensure greater visibility, appreciation for well-crafted books and explore realistic routes to take these books global. There is no restriction with regards to the genre – it could be a picture book, a graphic novel, a work of fiction, or non-fiction. The Fellowship is open to Indian citizens and residents who are persons of Indian origin.
The Jury for the Fellowship currently includes Neev Trust Founder Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, Ameen Haque, Founder, Storywallahs, as well as the NLF Director Karthika Gopalakrishnan. The foundation is working towards growing the jury as needed, with litterateurs from India.
The Fellows are expected to author original books. Though the Fellowships are not restricted in terms of genre, theme or ideology, the NLF expects proposed works to contribute to a fuller understanding of India.
Members of the NLF Fellowships Jury shall assess the proposals and prepare a shortlist of eligible candidates. The shortlisted candidates will be subject to a thorough interview process with a panel consisting of the NLF Fellowships Jury Members, as well as other eminent persons from the worlds of children’s writing and scholarship.
Applications open: 31st March, 2023
Last date to apply: 30th June 2023
Announcement of Fellows: October, 2023 (during the Neev Literature Festival)
Link to Apply: https://nlf-fellowships-for-book-creators.paperform.co/
The NLF has been deeply committed to support and promote Children’s Literature in India. To understand the dynamics, it conducted a detailed study of the Children’s Publishing Industry landscape. The report revealed that Indian children’s and young adult publishing was estimated to be about 25% of the total trade market in India in 2019-2020 (INR 28.24 billion), thereby pegging its value to be INR 7.206 billion (as per the 2022 India Book Market Report by Nielsen).
According to market data from 2021, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney was the bestselling front list title, while the second and third highest selling children’s books were from the activity books and early learning segments namely My First Book of Patterns Pencil Control and My First Library.