Along with funding for study and writing children’s books, the NLF Fellowship will also offer fellows mentorship and ensure that their works receive more exposure.

The Neev Literature Festival (NLF) established the NLF Fellowship to encourage authors and artists to create children’s books that depict Indian lives and experiences in response to a gap in the market for children’s literature in India.
A monetary grant for a year’s worth of study and book-writing will be part of the NLF Fellowship. According to a news release from the NLF, the grant will provide mentorship, editorial support, and increased exposure for the works created in addition to financial assistance.

For a period of one year, the NLF Fellowships will provide chosen book authors with a grant of 6 lakhs each to support their research and writing efforts. According to the press release, NLF’s novel initiative aims to support interesting children’s books that portray a part of India or Indians in a way that is so profoundly genuine, moving, and immersive that it brings to life an aspect of India—pre and post-Independence.

Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, a co-founder of NLF, observed that the Indian market for children’s books is overrun with foreign publications; NLF Fellowship aims to close this gap.Sabharwal said, “In a fragmented market that is swamped with international children’s literature and a publishing ecosystem that has traditionally under invested in Children’s literature from India, the NLF Fellowships aim to fill a gap that will hopefully encourage Indian writers to embark on imaginative, ambitious and research-driven literature for Indian audiences that is rooted in Indianness.”

The NLF Fellowship was established in response to a study the NLF had commissioned that revealed children’s books could account for up to 25% of sales.

“The report revealed that Indian children’s and young adult publishing was estimated to be about 25 per cent of the total trade market in India in 2019-2020 (INR 28.24 billion), thereby pegging its value to be INR 7.206 billion (as per the 2022 India Book Market Report by Nielsen),” said the NLF release.

Applications for the NLF Fellowship will be accepted from March 31 through June 30. The NLF in October will feature the announcement of the Fellows. The NLF Director Karthika Gopalakrishnan, NLF Co-Founder Sabharwal, and Storywallahs Co-Founder Ameen Haque are currently on the panel.
For the NLF Fellowship, proposals for works in all genres—picture books, graphic novels, fiction, and nonfiction—will be taken into consideration. Indian nationals and foreigners with Indian ancestry are eligible for the fellowship.

Apply for the NLF FELLOWSHIPS for CHILDREN’S BOOK CREATORS