'Awards not just to reward writers for persistent effort'

New Delhi: Literary awards are immensely significant in the present publishing world, and are not just an approach to reward writers for all their persistent effort but to acquaint readers with the works of authors for whom spotlight is hard to come by, believe the organisers of Coimbatore Literary Awards, which has just held its first edition.

"Book sellers and publishing companies have rushed to capitalise on the exposure generated by awards.

Awards functions, and the publicity encompassing them, are not just an approach to reward writers for all their persistent effort, they (also) acquaint new readers with their books. Whether or not they win, this presentation is priceless to make a big appearance to authors, just as authors who in any case wouldn't get the spotlight," Akshay Sharma, founder of the organising publishing house, Mark-Fly publishers told IANSlife, when asked about the presence of literary events as testimony to the relevance of literature in testing times.

What makes literary events essential for the writers is the opportunity to come up to the surface, as it gives motivation and makes them think about writing more books in the near future, he says.

The Coimbatore Literary Awards began with a view to highlight Coimbatore as a city rich in literature and heritage, and as per Sharma, yearned for such awards and acknowledgement, and to be on the 'literature map of India'. The growing literary award fest held its inaugural edition last month supported by Twell Magazine Team, headed by Deepak Tater Jain.

It awarded authors Malathi Ramachandran, Sarang Mahajan, Arvind Narsima, Neha Mittal, Samina Mushtaq Khan, Kapil Raj, Indraneel Majumdar, Viji Venkat, Puneeth JH, Kosha Shah Chandaria, along with Mansi Narula Kashyap, Chirasree Bose, Avishek Gupta, J Vijayalakhsmi, Sunayana Khandelwal, Anu Krishna and Nitika Krishna.

It also named the books of authors Vedant Saxena, Gautam Chaudhary, Tejaswi Priyadarshi, Shalini P Sawkar, and Shefali Arora among the most promising this year.