Mimi Mondal is the winner of the 2022 A.C. Bose Grant

Portrait of Mimi Mondal lying on a grassy background

The Speculative Literature Foundation has announced the winner of the 2022 A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature: Mimi Mondal. (You can find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/monidipa.mondal)

Here’s what they wrote:

This year’s AC Bose Grant winner is Mimi Mondal for her work “Twenty-Nine Days Before Remaking the World.”
Mimi Mondal (she/they) was nominated for the Nebula Award in 2020 for her novelette His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light (Tor.com/Realm.fm). Her debut Dungeons & Dragons adventure, named “In the Mists of Manivarsha” and inspired by Bengal from the 5th-6th century CE, is forthcoming in the book Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (Wizards of the Coast, June 2022). Her fiction can be found on Strange Horizons, Fireside Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Vol. 1 and elsewhere, and her nonfiction column “Extraordinary Alien” on Hindustan Times.

Mimi was born and raised in Kolkata, India, and currently lives in New York City, where she grows hydroponic flowers in the winter, reads (e)books on the grass at public parks in the summer, and takes late-night walks by the East River in all seasons.

“Twenty-Nine Days Before Remaking the World” was originally written in 2019 under the patronage of the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, which published the story in German translation by Anke Caroline Burger. The current version of the story is somewhat different from what it was three years ago, and may undergo a few other changes before it appears in Clarkesworld Magazine.

Many congratulations, Mimi!

THE A.C. BOSE GRANT

The A.C. Bose Grant will annually give $1000 to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities.

​The grant is founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose. A.C. Bose, a lover of books, and especially science fiction and fantasy, by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, in fond memory and to honor the legacy of the worlds he opened up for them.

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Winner of Monu Bose Memorial Prize for Art in 2022: Ellen He

The Dream Foundry just announced the winner of the 2022 Monu Bose Memorial Prize for Art. It’s Ellen He, who has a website at ellenhe.com 

I think Mom would have found her art quite delightful for its whimsy and colors. I’ve posted a couple of examples here (with permission), but if you love these, do visit her website!

THE MONU BOSE MEMORIAL PRIZE

The Monu Bose Memorial Prize is established in fond memory of Monu Bose by her children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose. Monu Bose was a lover of art of all kinds, and a graduate of Lucknow University and the College of Arts and Crafts. This Prize is to honor the legacy she opened up for us.​ The Prize will be administered and awarded by Dream Foundry. It awards $1000 annually to the winner of the Dream Foundry Art Competition. The donors hope that this prize will encourage new artists to develop their work and find their audience.

ABOUT MY MOTHER

Mom was born in Kolkata, India and grew up in what was then called Rangoon, in Burma (Myanmar). The daughter of a doctor, whose childhood home was filled with music and books, she had a broad range of interests and a gift for friendship. When World War II tore through the region, she returned to India with her parents and siblings. They eventually settled in Lucknow, where she studied Economics – and Art.

My mother had many interests – she loved animals and birds, gardening, and art. Though she never pursued it as a career, there was artistry in everything she did. She always enjoyed the art created by others. This prize is in her honor and memory, and the hope that it will encourage artists of a new generation.

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A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian/ diaspora writers – Applications open Jan 1-31, 2022

It’s time for the fourth AC Bose Grant applications! This Grant is made in memory of my father, who loved reading, introduced us to speculative fiction at an early age, and fostered our love of books and of open minds and open imaginations.


THE GRANT

If you’re a South Asian/ South Asian diaspora writer, you can apply for this.

The SLF and DesiLit are pleased to announce a co-sponsored grant, founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose, known as the A. C. Bose Grant beginning in 2019.

The A.C. Bose Grant will annually give $1000 to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities.

​The grant is founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose. A.C. Bose, a lover of books, and especially science fiction and fantasy, by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, in fond memory and to honor the legacy of the worlds he opened up for them.​
More info can be found on the website: https://speculativeliterature.org/grants/slf-ac-bose-grant/

Applications are open from Jan 1-31, 2022. The award is decided by a jury, and SLF expects to announce the winners  announced March end.  To apply, you need to submit a 5000-word (or less) writing sample (which must be speculative fiction), and a 500-word cover letter. Go to the website link for more details.

WHAT’S ‘SPECULATIVE FICTION’?

According to their website:

“Speculative literature is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making — and more. Any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element would fall under our aegis, and would potentially be work that we would be interested in supporting.”

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Sanjna N. Singh is the 2021 Winner of the A.C. Bose Grant

I’m thrilled to say that the Speculative Literature Foundation has announced the 2021 winner of the A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature. This year, it’s Sanjna N. Singh. What follows is from their Facebook page.

Sanjna N. Singh has worked in New York City for over fifteen years, at HBO, and as a television producer for shows such as Mob Wives, Storm Chasers, Dual Survival and Killing Fields. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, Guardian, Zora, Tricycle and Bitch, among other publications. Her documentary Out of Status, which followed Muslim families detained or deported on post 9/11 immigration sweeps, was nominated for Amnesty’s Human Rights Award and aired on Channel 4 in the UK. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program.

THE A.C. BOSE GRANT

The A.C. Bose Grant will annually give $1000 to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities.

​The grant is founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose. A.C. Bose, a lover of books, and especially science fiction and fantasy, by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, in fond memory and to honor the legacy of the worlds he opened up for them.

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A.C. Bose Grant Applications Jan 1-31, 2021

It’s time for the third AC Bose Grant applications! This Grant is made in memory of my father, who loved reading, introduced us to speculative fiction at an early age, and fostered our love of books and of open minds and open imaginations.

THE GRANT

If you’re a South Asian/ South Asian diaspora writer, you can apply for this.

The SLF and DesiLit are pleased to announce a co-sponsored grant, founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose, known as the A. C. Bose Grant beginning in 2019.

The A.C. Bose Grant will annually give $1000 to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities.

​The grant is founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose. A.C. Bose, a lover of books, and especially science fiction and fantasy, by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, in fond memory and to honor the legacy of the worlds he opened up for them.​
More info can be found on the website: https://speculativeliterature.org/grants/slf-ac-bose-grant/

Applications are open from Jan 1-31, 2021. The award is decided by a jury, and will be announced May 15, 2021.  To apply, you need to submit a 5000-word (or less) writing sample (which must be speculative fiction), and a 500-word cover letter. Go to the website link for more details.

WHAT’S ‘SPECULATIVE FICTION’?

According to their website:

“Speculative literature is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making — and more. Any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element would fall under our aegis, and would potentially be work that we would be interested in supporting.”

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The Monu Bose Memorial Prize

My mother was a wonderful person – and sometimes, I think, it’s only when I grew up and passed through the same stages of life that I truly appreciated how special she was. She was loving but not sentimental, and encouraged us to take her for granted. Which was a gift in itself, one that I understood only when I became a parent.

It’s been years that she’s been gone, and my brother and I have been thinking of  a way to commemorate her. Some of the ideas we developed were non-starters. But then the perfect one popped up.

THE MONU BOSE MEMORIAL PRIZE

The Monu Bose Memorial Prize is established in fond memory of Monu Bose by her children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose. Monu Bose was a lover of art of all kinds, and a graduate of Lucknow University and the College of Arts and Crafts. This Prize is to honor the legacy she opened up for us.​ The Prize will be administered and awarded by Dream Foundry. It will award $1000 annually to the winner of the Dream Foundry Art Competition. The donors hope that this prize will encourage new artists to develop their work and find their audience.

Apple tree with pretty girl wearing a wreath of flowers. Copyright Thaleia Demeter

The Apple Tree. Copyright Thaleia Demeter (ThaleiaDemeter.com) Published with permission

The winner this year is Thaleia Demeter. I think Mom would have loved her work.

ABOUT MY MOTHER

Mom was born in Kolkata, India and grew up in what was then called Rangoon, in Burma (Myanmar). The daughter of a doctor, whose childhood home was filled with music and books, she had a broad range of interests and a gift for friendship. When World War II tore through the region, she returned to India with her parents and siblings. They eventually settled in Lucknow, where she studied Economics – and Art.

My mother had many interests – she loved animals and birds, gardening, and art. Though she never pursued it as a career, there was artistry in everything she did. She always enjoyed the art created by others. This prize is in her honor and memory, and the hope that it will encourage artists of a new generation.

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Little Red Christmas Tree

Why is my Christmas tree red this year? It’s because of Covid.

So, to back track.

Though headquarters for us is in San Francisco, we have a pied-a-terre in Tacoma that we’d rented in February. We got moved in, keeping only one houseplant – a small cypress tree. It needed water maybe once a month or so, and was very low maintenance. In early March, off I went to San Francisco, with plans to return by the end of the month to complete setting up.

Then came Covid. We sheltered in place through March, thinking it would be done in 2 weeks. We waited through April and May, and then finally in June, as things seemed to be getting better, we drove up to Tacoma in one straight 15-hour trip.

Low maintenance, maybe, but not no maintenance. The plant was drying out. We tried reviving it, but it turned a convincing but unappealing brown. So I spray-painted it red.

Now that Covid numbers are extremely high again, we’re having a locked-down Christmas. This little tree seemed very appropriate, so I brought it in and decorated it. (The array of angels and Santa around it are handmade, but not by me. I found them at a vintage store and was quite charmed.)

The star I usually put on top was too large, so this year’s topper is a little angel fabricated from a paper doily.

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON, EVERYONE, WHATEVER YOU ARE CELEBRATING!

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The 2020 Winner of the AC Bose Grant is Asha Thanki

Back in 2018, we started to set up an annual grant in my father’s memory. It was awarded for the first time in 2019 to Senaa Ahmed. That post is HERE.

Normally, the winner would be announced on 26th May, Dad’s birth anniversary. This year, there was Covid, so there was disruption and delay. But the winner has been selected! And it’s Asha Thanki. The story that won her the grant, “Somewhere in Bombay, a Fog Descends” was published in the Arkansas International magazine, Spring 2020.

This is from the website of the Speculative Literature Foundation:

‘Thanki’s winning piece is titled “Somewhere in Bombay, a Fog Descends.” Thanki is a fiction writer and essayist living in Minneapolis, where she is completing an MFA at the University of Minnesota. She is the winner of the 2019 Arkansas International’s Emerging Writers Prize and a finalist for Redivider’s 2020 Beacon Street Prize. Her work has appeared in Platypus Press’ wildness, The Common, Catapult, Cosmonauts Avenue, Hyphen, and more; more information can be found at ashathanki.com.’

THE A.C. BOSE GRANT



Here are the details of the grant. The application period is January 1 to March 31, so if you’re interested in the 2021 award, there’s lots of time.

The A.C. Bose Grant, established in 2019, is an annual grant given to a South Asian/South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference; the donors hope this will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities. The grant is named in honor of Ashim Chandra Bose, a lover of books and especially of science fiction and fantasy, and was founded by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose.

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The A.C. Bose Award for South Asian Speculative Fiction Writers

Last year, we were thinking about some kind of award to commemorate my father. He was a wonderful person – an intellect, soft-spoken, broad-ranging in his thinking and values. One of the things he did for us, his children, was to get us interested in reading, and it was he who introduced us to Science Fiction and Fantasy (now broadly known as Speculative Fiction). It’s remained our favorite genre, with its ability to generate new worlds of ideas.

So when the opportunity popped up to fund a grant to writers in and from South Asia who are working in this genre, we took it. The Speculative Literature Foundation accepts applications, assembles a jury, picks the winner, and makes the award. It’s called  The SLF $1000 A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature

The SLF and DesiLit are pleased to announce a new co-sponsored grant, founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose, known as the A. C. Bose Grant beginning in 2019.

The A.C. Bose Grant will annually give $1000 to a South Asian / South Asian diaspora writer developing speculative fiction. It supports adult fiction, but work that is also accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities.

​The grant is founded in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose. A.C. Bose, a lover of books, and especially science fiction and fantasy, by his children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, in fond memory and to honor the legacy of the worlds he opened up for them.​

The first A.C. Bose award was made on May 26th (Dad’s birth anniversary) to Senaa Ahmad. It was announced at Wiscon, a major Speculative Fiction Convention.

The story that won Senaa Ahmad the award is The Glow-in-the-Dark Girls – a grim fantasy about girls who have been weaponized as radioactive bombs. It was first published in Strange Horizons and you can read it here: The Glow-in-the-Dark Girls.

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Corruption Perceptions, 2016

From time to time, I report on the Corruption Perceptions studies by Transparency International. It’s interesting to watch the trends, though I have to admit they’re slow-moving. In 2016, China caught up with India, and Myanmar – again is the surprise.

Transparency International tracks corruption, and each year they make a ‘Corruption Perceptions Index’ across 175-180 or so countries. For 2016, it was 176 countries. This measures how business people both local and international perceive corruption in each country. The map below shows the findings graphically – lighter is better. (The Transparency website has a larger interactive map. Take a look if you want to browse – scroll down from the large map until you find the interactive one.)

cpi2016_transparency-international-map-excerpt

So here are the results for 2016.
In 2014, India ranked ahead of China for the first time since year 2000. People thought India’s corruption environment was improving, and China’s worsening. I speculated that it might be the Modi Effect. In 2015, a year I skipped, China improved its rank and this year – it’s caught up. Both countries have a “normalized rank” of 45. The US is stable at 10.

Since the number of countries Transparency covers changes each year, I normalize the ranks. You could think of them as percentiles.  So a rank of 45 is around the middle of the pack.
corruption-perception-rank

Myanmar is the surprise. In 2013, it improved its Corruption Perceptions sharply. At that time, I wrote, “While a normalized rank of 89 is nothing to brag about, the improvement is. If Myanmar can keep this up for a few years, people will be able to dismiss corruption there as no worse than anywhere in ASEAN.”

But then it seemed to flatten out, and 2014 and 2015 weren’t much different that 2013. This year, it’s shot up to 77. Again, not bragworthy exactly, but it’s pulled it out of the company of countries like Somalia and Sudan and North Korea, and is now in the same group as Guatemala and Papua New Guinea (and Kyrgyzstan). It’s climbed 12 ranks in 4 years. If it can do it again, it could in a few years be within shouting distance of other ASEAN countries. Thailand and the Philippines, for instance, both have a normalized rank of 57.

Here are the actual Corruption Perception Scores (out of 100, higher is better). According to the organization, the scores before 2012 are not comparable with the ones from that date onward. I’ve tweaked them so I think they’re good enough, but a data-purist might object.

corruption-perceptions-2016

I’m using the US as a standard of comparison, and this shows it’s been quite stable.

But it’s not the top of the world.  The US only scores 74 (out of 100). It’s behind New Zealand and Denmark (90),  Finland (89), Sweden (88), Switzerland (86), Norway (85), Singapore (84), Netherlands (83), Canada (82), Germany, Luxembourg, and UK (all 81), Australia (79), Iceland (78), Hong Kong (77) – though I don’t know why Hong Kong is separately reported, Belgium (77),  and Austria (75). I wonder if the new government in the US will have an effect on corruption perceptions in 2017.

Watch this space.

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