Nina Andotra's story collection ’Bindlu’ selected for ‘HSM Navlekhin Tej Puraskar’

Jammu, Nov 23: Nina Andotra, a story writer and poet from Kathua, presently residing in Ahmedabad, has been selected for the seventh edition of the annual Hindi Sahitya Mandal Navlekhin Tej Puraskar-2024, run by the Hindi Sahitya Mandal.

The award will be given for her story collection ‘Bindlu’. This award, presented by the Mandal in memory of the late Tej Bhan Gulati with the support of his family, includes a cash prize of Rs 11,000, a coconut, and a citation.

It is worth noting that in the previous six editions from 2018 to 2023, this award has been presented to Kunwar Shakti Singh (2018- poetry), Sumit Sudan (2019- poetry), Kajal Suri (2020- poetry), Naresh Khajuria (2021- poetry), Rajneesh Gupta (2022- drama), and Rakesh Abrol (2023- poetry).

This will be the first time that the award will be presented for a short story collection.

This year's award was unanimously decided by the jury nominated by the Mandal. This year's jury included poet-storyteller-critic and former Head of the Hindi Department, Professor Rajkumar; short story writer-poet and Ayurvedic scholar, Dr Adarsh; and Hindi short story writer and former Principal, Prof Kiran Bakshi.

The judges, after reviewing the entries received this year, unanimously recommended the collection ‘Bindlu’ for the award.

The collection was deemed worthy of the award for its diverse range of narrative concerns and promising style of expression.