Short Fiction
Encouraging new talent
|
The stories in the collection is a good indication of the great potential out there, writes NIMI KURIAN
|
Winners, Volume I, edited by Mary Mathew and Annie Chandy Mathew, Unisun Publications, 2005, p.157, Rs.125.
WINNERS, Volume I, is a collection of prize winning poems and stories. Much on the lines of Katha, though it will take a long time yet to reach those heights. But, all the same, this is a commendable effort by Unisun Publications, which hopes to encourage writers.
The first half of the book consists of prize-winning stories from the Unisun Creative Writing Competition. Dr. Chandrashekar Sastry won the first prize with his story "The Splendour of a Hundred Thousand Suns". He tells the story of an engineer-scientist who is all set to go to the U.S. — the land of dreams. But his girlfriend has other ideas. Sastry brings in a dash of mystery or rather, the so-talked-about Indian mystique. The story is well told and lucid.
"The Monarch Butterfly" by Jaya Madhavan and "Golgotha" by Eshwar Sundaresan won the second prize. While the first story carries with it faint echoes of the Oedipus complex, the second speaks of the important decision a woman has to make before she enters the nunnery and a life of denial. "To Trail A Wooden Wagon" by Kalpana Naghnoor and "Morning After the Storm" by Abraham Tharakan, which won the third prize, are tinged with sadness. A sense of longing for something lost. "The Darkening Sky" by Anita Manuel, "Train Friends" by Aruna Nambiar and "The Tyre Seller" by Abraham Tharakan are also in the running for the third prize. "Train Friends" stands out for its vivid details and eloquence, for its description and essence of truth and plausibility.
There are four poems and interestingly, the third prize winner is Asheema Naghnoor, daughter of Kalpana Naghnoor.
The rest of the book carries the stories of the winners of the British Council's Writer's Circle prize. The writers were all given the same introductory lines "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day: it was raining much too hard." It is fascinating what the winners — Aman Sethi, Vikram Rajan, Swetha Rajan, Dakshayani R. and Madhuri Shekar — have done with those lines. Each story is refreshingly different and words have been used to great benefit.
The Culture Café Writer's Circle brings together like-minded people who love to read and write. It provides space for young writers to discuss their writing and sharpen their skills. This competition was conducted for college students only and the stories which have won show that there is great potential here.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
