JNPA Guidelines

Executive Sponsor

Rules

1. The Jayadev National Poetry Award (JNPA), valued at INR 51,000.00, will be awarded annually to the best collection of poetry in any of the 22 officially recognized Indian languages, including English, published between 1 January and 31 December 2017.
2. The Award will be conferred upon a living Indian poet and/or a translator.
3. Translations will be assessed for their quality as poetry written originally in English, the focus being on the translator’s.
4. Should a prize-winning book be a translation from a living poet, 60% of the prize money will go to the translator and 40% to the original poet. If the original poet is deceased, but if his or her work is within copyright, 40% of the prize will either be given to the original poet’s copyright holder or its disbursement left to the discretion of the judges.

Judges

a. The trustees and the curators of the Odisha Art and Literature Festival (OALF) will select the judges annually. The judges may not be on the payroll of a publishing house that publishes contemporary poetry.
b. The longlist will be drawn out from the books submitted within the submission period.
c. The judges will compile a shortlist of up to four outstanding books of poetry.
d. The judges will select the final winner from the shortlist.
e. The judges have absolute discretion in interpreting the rules, and their decision will be final and binding.
f. All decisions of the judges will be unanimous.

Eligibility Criteria

a. The submission window for entries opens on 1 May 2018 and closes on 30 June 2018. The submissions must come exclusively from publishers (not from poets or translators), who may submit as many titles as they wish to.
b. Submissions by an author or translator on behalf of his publisher are not acceptable.
c. There is no age bar and no discrimination based on the religion or gender of the author. She or he must be an Indian citizen.
d. The submitted title must be a first-edition collection (i.e., it should not have been previously published in any country) either written in or translated into English by a poet/translator or written in any of the 22 scheduled Indian languages.
e. The submitted books must have been published in India between 1 January and 31 December 2017.
f. Winning the Jayadev National Poetry Award (or any other prize) previously does not render a poet ineligible for the current year’s award.
g. Entries by living authors and translators at the time of their book’s publication will be considered.
h. The book must be the work of one poet.
i. Volumes containing selected or collected poems are eligible only as translations into English.
j. A book of translations by two translators is eligible provided they have collaborated throughout.
k. A collection of translations by various hands is not eligible.
l. A book by a trustee or curator of OALF or current judge is not eligible.
m. No self-published or vanity-published book is eligible.
n. Books available only in the digital form are not eligible.
o. The judges’ decision as to a book’s eligibility is binding.
p. All books must carry an ISBN.
q. A book is defined as having at least 64 pages.
r. Publishers can submit their poets’ works regardless of whether those works have been selected or submitted to other prizes or competitions.

Conditions of the Award

a. A book submitted for the Award will not qualify unless the publisher agrees to:
i. prepare and encourage the nominated poet(s) to participate in all associated publicity
ii. accept sticker copies of the shortlisted and winning books with the Jayadev National Poetry Award seals in hard copy and digital formats
iii. secure prior written approval of the Award Committee with respect to artwork when including facsimiles of the Award seal on all reprints of the winning book(s)
iv. comply with the rules, submission guidelines, and deadlines
v. agree to permit the republication of selected poems from the shortlisted works in the Jayadev National Poetry Award Anthology.
b. A one-time permission fee of INR 5000.00 will be paid by each publisher of the shortlisted books. The proceeds will be donated to a literary cause.

Submission Procedures and Deadlines

a. Publishers may submit any number of titles.
b. Works published between 1 January and 31 December 2017 are eligible.
c. The Jayadev National Poetry Award may, at any time, call in a book that has not been submitted. In that event, the publisher will be required to forward an Entry Form, along with five copies of the book, and comply with all rules and regulations.
d. The Award will acknowledge receipt of submissions to the publishers only.
e. No books will be returned.
f. Five copies of each book must be submitted to:

Jayadev National Poetry Award
Plot 818/2502
Gobindeswar Road
Old Town
Bhubaneswar 751002
Odisha
India
contactjnpa@gmail.com

g. Each submission must include an Entry Form along with available press material, as well as the poet’s and/or translator’s bio note and digital photograph in high resolution. The photographs should be 300 dpi minimum and, preferably, in TIFF or JPEG format.

Finalists

a. The longlist will be announced on 30 August 2018.
b. The shortlist of finalists will be announced on 30 November 2018. Publicity of the shortlisted books and poets will begin at the time of announcement, and continue until the winner is declared, on 25 December 2018.
c. The readings and awards evening will take place during February 2019 at Odisha Art & Literature Festival in Bhubaneswar.
d. The judges will select the winner from the shortlisted works in private deliberations. The publishers will receive no advance notice of the shortlisted nominees or the winner.

For further information or enquiries about JNPA, send an email to contactjnpa@gmail.com.