A Tamil Literary Award, All the Way from Malaysia
Published: 27th January 2014 08:10 AM | Last Updated: 27th January 2014 08:17 AM | A+A A-
Along the lines of international recognition given for English books, the National Land Finance Co-operative Society (NLFCS) in Malaysia has announced an award of USD 10,000 (`6 lakh) for the best Tamil book.
The society invites applications from Tamil authors across the world for the award. Recent works from novels, historical books, linguistic research works, and grammer books, published during 2012-2013 are eligible for the award. The works should be of mimimum 100 pages long and should lie within the stream-relevant constraints of culture, techniques, legacy and tradition. Moreover, the author should be a person living among us and of our time. Translation works will not be considered. Last date for the submission of Applications is March 31, 2014.
The awards will be conferred in August at Kuala Lumpur. The awardee will be facilitated with air tickets, and boarding and lodging.
“Despite the reality that Tamil diaspora have spread across 100 countries, no international award has been instituted yet, to honor Tamil works. We have instituted the award last year to fill the gap. The research work Thiran Aaivugalin Marupakkam by Ponambalam of Sri Lanka fetched the award,” said Rajendran, spokesperson of NLFCS Malaysia and president of the Malaysia Tamil Writers Association.
“To protect the interests of the print medium amidst the growing attention for internet, television, and radio and for international recognition to Tamil authors, we have instituted the award,” he added.
The National Land Finance Co-operative Society has over 60,000 Tamils working in 18 rubber and tea estates of Malaysia as its members. It is noteworthy that this is the biggest co-operative society for Tamils in Malaysia. Tun Sambanthan is the founder of the Society and Tan Sri KR Somasundaram is the present president of the society.
Applications to the award are to be sent to the address: The Secretary, Tan Sri K R Soma Book Award, National Land Finance Co-operative Society Limited, Level 10, Wisma Tun Sambanthan, Peti Surat 12133, Jalan Sulaiman, 50768, Kuala Lumpur.
