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.‘