1st Rainbow Awards

1st Rainbow Awards
Date	December 10, 2023 (2023-December-10)
Venue	Rainbow Lit Fest, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi
Country	India
Presented by	Dwijen Dinanath Arts Foundation
Website	therainbowawards.in

The 1st Rainbow Awards ceremony was held at Rainbow Lit Fest, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi on 10 December 2023. It celebrated writers from 1 January 2022 and journalists from 1 June 2022, both until 31 May 2023.[1]

Jury

The nine-member jury composed of following members evaluated the submissions and decide on the award winners. Rohin Bhatt, queer rights activist, lawyer and bioethicist, served as a co-coordinator.[1][2]

• Adrija Bose, editor
• Alka Pande, art historian and writer
• Anish Gawande, co-found of the Pink List India
• Jyotsna Siddharth, artist and writer
• Kalki Subramaniam, activist, artist and writer
• Parvati Sharma, writer
• Poonam Saxena, writer and translator
• Sindhu Rajasekaran, writer and researcher

Winners and nominees

Lifetime Achievement Award

Hoshang Merchant, a Hyderabad-based poet and professor best known for his anthology Yaraana, was honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award.[1][3]

Literature

Fiction of the Year Entering the Maze: Queer Fiction of Krishnagopal Mallick by Niladri R. Chatterjee[4] (Niyogi Books) Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel[5] (Flatiron Books) The Woman Who Climbed Trees by Smriti Ravindra[6] (HarperVia)

Non-fiction of the Year Footprints of a Queer History: Life-stories from Gujarat by Maya Sharma[7] (Yoda Press) I Am Onir and I am Gay by Onir with Irene Dhar Malik[8] (Penguin Random House) Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India by K Vaishali[9] (Simon & Schuster)

Journalism

Feature of the Year Brahmin Men Who Love to Eat A** by Akhil Kang[10] (Decolonizing Sexualities Network) The Horrors of Queer Conversion Therapy in India by Nolina Minj[11] (Scroll) Seen-Unseen by Riddhi Dastidar[12] (Queer Beat)

Op-Ed of the Year Queering Translation: Locating Queerness in Indian Languages by Chittajit Mitra[13] (Hindustan Times) Why Saurabh Kirpal Needs to Be Appointed as Judge? by Kinshuk Gupta[14] (The Indian Express) Though Homosexuality Has Been Decriminalised, Two Incidents in Pune Show How Bias Still Prevails by R Raj Rao[15] (Scroll)

See also

• List of LGBT-related awards
• 34th GLAAD Media Awards

References

1. Sharma, Saurabh (11 December 2023). "Rainbow Lit Fest 2023: Winners of the inaugural Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism announced". Moneycontrol. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023.
2. Scroll Staff (25 May 2023). "Inaugural Rainbow Awards to honour queer literature and journalism". Scroll.in.
3. Nanisetti, Serish (10 September 2018). "'Homosexuality is endemic where capitalism thrives,' says Hoshang Merchant". The Hindu. thehindu.com.
4. Mallick, Krishnagopal (2023). Entering the maze: queer fiction of Krishnagopal Mallick. Translated by Chatterjee, Niladri R. New Delhi: Niyogi Books. ISBN 978-93-91125-90-5.
5. Patel, Neel (2021). Tell me how to be. New York, United States: Flatiron Books. ISBN 9781250184979. OCLC 1257313197.
6. Ravindra, Smriti (2023). The woman who climbed trees (1st ed.). New York: HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-324048-3.
7. Sharma, Maya (2022). Footprints of a queer history: life-stories from Gujarat. New Delhi, India: Yoda Press. ISBN 9789382579359. OCLC 1347785526.
8. Onir; Malik, Irene Dhar (2022). I am Onir, & I am gay. Gurugram, Haryana, India: Penguin/Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-670-09473-8. OCLC 1334560573.
9. K., Vaishali (2023). Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9789392099502. OCLC 1371141365.
10. Kang, Akhil (5 January 2023). "Brahmin Men who love to Eat A**". Decolonizing Sexualities Network. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023.
11. Minj, Nolina (2022-09-07). "The horrors of queer conversion therapy in India". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 2022-09-07.
12. Dastidar, Riddhi (18 April 2023). "Seen-Unseen". Queer Beat. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023.
13. Mitra, Chittajit (2022-09-29). "Essay: Queering translation: Locating queerness in Indian languages". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09.
14. Gupta, Kinshuk (2023-01-27). "Why Saurabh Kirpal needs to be appointed as judge". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 2023-03-20.
15. Rao, R. Raj (2022-07-28). "Though homosexuality has been decriminalised, two incidents in Pune show how bias still prevails". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 2022-07-28.