This week, three Indian writers announced a new award for Indian poets who write in English, making this one of the few given in this particular community. The Osmosis Poetry Prize will be given annually, aims to be impartial in its quest to recognise and encourage poets who have not yet published a full length poetry collection, and will also have a cash component of Rs. 10,000 which will be contributed by the founders. FPJ spoke to the three writers who have come together to set up the prize: Yashasvi Vachhani, Kunjana Parashar, and Kinjal Sethia. Their responses also shone a light on the fascinating dynamics, interactions and values in the tight-knit communities of Indian poets in English.

Excerpts from the interview:

How do you see the award in the overall scene of Indian poetry in English?

Kunjana: Like a frog jumping into a pond (hello, Basho), we hope to make a small but significant splash. We want more contemporaneous voices to be heard and celebrated. We are a little tired of seeing the same voices being platformed and lauded in the current scene and we hope to change that through this prize.

Kinjal: In the larger context, it is just one of those awards I wish were there for me to submit my poetry. Communities are a strong force, and to be validated by them is the right encouragement when you are just beginning.

What is the scope of the award in terms of eligibility and prize money? Would it be annual?

Yashasvi: The prize is for an Indian poet writing in English, who has still not published a full-length poetry collection. There is no age limit. We will award Rs. 10,000 each to two poets. Yes, we hope to make it an annual prize going forward.

What were the main factors that took this idea forward? For instance, how did your team come together?

Kunjana: Mainly our mutual love and enthusiasm for poetry. Yashasvi and I were friends on Instagram and she asked me whether we could discuss and analyze poetry together. I said yes and we would pick apart random poems on a Google doc. Kinjal joined us a year later and then there were three.

Yashasvi: The prize came about with sheer manic energy. We were driven by the intention to create a platform for emerging Indian poets writing in English.

What circumstances determined the timing of the announcement for the award?

Kunjana: Each of us got some money from our individual sources in December. And then Yashasvi asked us how much it took to run a poetry prize. One thing led to another and we were discussing a new prize.

Kinjal: We were anyway looking for ideas to do things together, to put this collaborative energy into a tangential project. The prize seemed like a good way to validate emerging poets like us.

What are your boundaries in terms of seeking collaborations/associations?

Kinjal: Since we are just starting out, we decided to keep it between the three of us, and a judge of our choice.

Yashasvi: While we’re saying a cautious yes to collaborations, we want nothing to compromise the integrity of the prize.

Would you bring to this initiative your varied experiences in curating literary festivals and association with literary groups, and in what ways?

Kinjal: Absolutely. Yashasvi has immense experience in terms of organizing & facilitating literary festivals. She is full of brilliant creative ideas (like this prize) and is our energy source. She also handles the social media aspect of the prize which is very important in terms of publicity & reach.

Kunjana: Kinjal’s experience with helping organise the Deepankar Khiwani Memorial Prize for The Quarantine Train (a literary community) will help in setting up the processes for this prize. We are better prepared for any challenges that might come up.

Yashasvi: While Kunjana and I are happy to dream up things, Kinjal is our grounding force. Kunjana also brings her experience of submitting and winning multiple prizes such as the Toto Funds the Arts, DKM Poetry Prize and The Barbara Stevens Poetry Book Award. Her poetic calibre and sharp sense of poetics will be instrumental in steering the selection process. The three of us are also associate editors at The Bombay Literary Magazine and have experience reading lots of submissions.

All of you are active writers. What would you do if a friend who was a fellow poet contacted you personally asking for the award?

Kunjana: Firstly, we hope no self-respecting poet will do this. But if they did, we would tell them that this is unethical and they will have to follow the submission guidelines and wait for a fair evaluation if they want their work to be considered for the prize.

If you were to make a wish for the kind of impact you’d like this award to have, what would it be?

Yashasvi: I wish this gives a poet an opportunity to celebrate on an otherwise long and arduous journey and practice.

Kunjana: I hope for poets to feel seen, recognized and encouraged. I wish for publishers and literary agents to take poetry more seriously. I wish for more such prizes and opportunities.

How would you like this award to evolve in the near future?

Kunjana: We have high hopes. For now, we want this prize to be sustainable. But in the future, we hope to increase the prize money so we can actually make a monetary difference in a poet’s life.

Kinjal: As someone who practises fiction writing too, I would like to have a prize for emerging short story writers too.

Yashasvi: I wish for this to be a landmark event in the poetry calendar and also for it to be an inspiration for poets to refine, revise their work to be able to send it to the prize.

When is the selection process likely to begin, and the prize to be announced?

Kunjana: We will announce the important dates and other details shortly on our Instagram page @theosmosispoetryprize.