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Published on Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 19:11

Showered with short stories from India and overseas, it was a tough task shortlisting the seven best entries from which our esteemed judges zeroed in on the three finalists. What made our distinguished jury select these three entries were originality, clarity of expression, brevity, treatment of theme, characterization, suggestiveness and of course, lucid diction. The first round of e-Author version 4.0 is over and our eminent judges have made their choices of the finalists.

The three writers who have made it to the coveted top spots are:
(arranged alphabetically)

Her entry: Woman to Woman & The Mango Tree

Madhulika Liddle lives in New Delhi, where she works as an Instructional Designer. An avid traveller and reader, she writes fiction in her spare time. Her short stories have won a number of awards, including the Overall Prize in the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, 2003, which was awarded for her story A Morning Swim.

Her entry: Mahadeva & The Cracked Wall

Srisrividhiya is a writer and a visualiser. She holds a Masters degree with distinction in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Madras University. She has designed and illustrated five picture books for children with Katha, Manoj Prakashan as well as enjoyed the challenges that conceptualizing educational material with NCERT brought. She loves working with children and conducts regular workshops in creative story telling, illustration and art and craft.

Her entry: Better Half & Family

Uma Girish is an internationally published freelance writer based in Chennai, India. Her work has appeared in Christian Science Monitor, Massage Magazine, Women’s eNews, Emirates Woman, Gurlz, Debonair, Wedding Affair, Tots to Teens and The New Writer, among others. Her short fiction for children and adults has won awards. She is currently looking for a publisher for her full-length non-fiction manuscript.

Each of the winning finalists will have to submit three more short stories by June 30, 2006. For details of the second round, please click here.

Send in your entries to eauthor@apeejaygroup.com.

www.oxfordbookstore.com will get in touch with the three finalists shortly for the formalities involved in the ongoing contest.

The remaining four writers who featured amongst the seven shortlisted finalists of
e-Author version 4.0 are: (arranged alphabetically)

Crystal Valladares (Mumbai) - On the Wing of a Songbird & To the Music of the Stars

Jayashree Jayapaul (Periakulam) - The Housewife who Wouldn't be & The Squirrels

Ravikant Kisana (Kolkata) - Culling the Chicken & The Fishbowl and the Fireman

Rupayan Basu (Kolkata) - The Fault with Mr Fernandes & When Grandparents Remember

Congratulations and thank you all for making the first round a grand success!

Tell us what you think of the finalists’ stories. Send your comments to eauthor@apeejaygroup.com.

For any other query, send a mail to eauthor@apeejaygroup.com.

The main idea behind e-Author is to provide a literary stage to budding writers where their talents will be exposed and rewarded. Through e-Author, we hope to :

inspire India's next generation of writers to pen down hitherto unexplored themes in Indian fiction and showcase their literary experiments in prose
provide a platform to talented authors who are serious about pursuing a career in writing

Ashok Mahadevan - Former Editor, Reader’s Digest
Diya Kar Hazra - Senior Commissioning Editor, Penguin Books India
Jairam Ramesh - MP, Columnist & Author
Kunal Basu - Author
Samit Basu - Author
Swapan Dasgupta - Journalist

The total prize money is a handsome Rs 100,000* for the top three winners.

Winner – Rs 50,000*
First Runner-up – Rs 30,000*
Second Runner-up – Rs 20,000*

The winning authors will have the privilege of getting their books published online at www.oxfordbookstore.com. Reader’s Digest will publish the three winners’ short stories as a special supplement.

* Conditions Apply