New $25,000 IGF Archer-Amish Award for Literature to celebrate Indian storytelling

LONDON: Two well-known bestselling authors, Lord Jeffrey Archer and Amish Tripathi, have teamed up with UK-headquartered India Global Forum (IGF) to launch a brand-new $25,000 literary award to nurture talent in contemporary Indian fiction and celebrate storytelling that makes a significant contribution to the India story. The IGF Archer-Amish Award for literature was announced on Monday, the inaugural day of the week-long forum in London.

It will open to nominations later in the year, when the criteria for entries and jury will be laid out, and the winner of the prize money will be declared at the next IGF London summit in 2025.

"Awards are very important because they give recognition, and they allow someone who has slaved night and day to achieve something to realise they're not on their own, stuck in a box," said Lord Archer, the prolific British author of bestsellers such as 'Kane and Abel' and 'The Clifton Chronicles'.

"Writing is very lonely; you are totally on your own. So, when the world acknowledges you with an award, it is an acknowledgement of your talent," he said.

Amish Tripathi, known for his works centred around Hindu mythological themes, with the most recent being 'War of Lanka' - a reimagination of the epic 'Ramayana', explained the motivation behind the new literary award.

"This is an award that aims to encourage the gift of storytelling itself, and that is one of the key drivers. This will make it very different from other awards which might reward those whose books are boring but use good language. However, there's no story," said Tripathi.

"The second aspect is around Indians talking about ourselves, our own stories. The way Westerners see India, in a lot of ways through the Western lens, it is one narrative, one lens, which is very different from how Indians see India," he said.

The winner of the award will also be featured across IGF platforms, sharing their creative journey and introducing their work to a worldwide audience.

"At IGF, we are storytellers - we tell the story of contemporary India and we tell it from the lens of business, science and technology. But without culture, commerce is a little dry," said IGF Founder Manoj Ladwa.

"There is a disconnect between what the West thinks of India, and what Indians read and are, and what they see of their country. So IGF seeks to bridge that disconnect with this award," he added.