The Open Hands Initiative is proud to announce and congratulate the winner of the first ever Newsweek & The Daily Beast-Open Hands Initiative Prize for Commentary in South Asia.
Dilip D’Souza is an award winning, Mumbai-based writer and columnist, as well as the author of three books including “Road Runner: An Indian Quest in America.” His essays and commentary have appeared in numerous publications including the Washington Post, Hindustan Times, Forbes India, and The Sunday Observer. He is also the author of a blog entitled, “Death Ends Fun.” You can read more about the winner on the Daily Beast.
On June 20th, a special awards ceremony (seen above) was co-hosted by Tina Brown, Lawrence Schiller, Diliana and Spas Roussev, and Tunku Varadarajan at the Asia Society in New York City to commemorate the occasion.
This joint prize, which was created in order to inspire and nurture up and coming talent from the South Asia region, includes a $25,000 cash award, a one-month residency at the Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony in Massachusetts, as well as year long bi-weekly column on The Daily Beast.
The aim is to help foster and promote the work of an individual who has significantly contributed to the public narrative on important social, political, and cultural issues of their region.
Open Hands Chairman Jay Snyder said of the prize, “It is my hope that through this award, Americans will gain greater exposure to important literary and journalistic voices that exist in South Asia.”
Many talented columnists, writers, and journalists from across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh were nominated for this award, but just one lucky writer won.
Congratulations to Dilip D’Souza!
Update: Don’t miss a single article from Dilip D’Souza! Read all of his India coverage on the Daily Beast. You can also hear from the winner himself in this one-on-one interview with Lucas Wittmann on DailyBeast TV.