ABOUT THE RAINBOW AWARDS
The Rainbow Awards for Literature & Journalism aims to recognise literary and journalistic work done by queer and cis-het writers who are creating and building narratives around LGBTQIA+ lives. What will consistently matter in the selection process is exemplary affirmative work that brings to life authenticity, realities, stories of love, trials, tribulations, vulnerabilities and strength.
The larger purpose of the Awards is to collectively, and over a period of time, contribute to the building, encouraging more people to come forth to write queer and trans stories.
We believe that through these Awards and the work recognised, the publishing and media world will expand its doors and minds to this ‘genre’. We hope they will realise that ‘queer’ and ‘trans’ lives deserve attention, that every story makes a difference to social constructs and perceptions, that each of these narratives add to the community’s sense of belonging.
To meet these objectives, every year a jury will access the variety of entries from publishers, authors, journalists, freelance writers and editors. The jury’s endeavour is and always will be to ensure fairness and studied assessments. The selection of eligible entries will be taken solely and only by the jury. Their decision is and will be final and binding.
Entries for the 2025 edition of the Awards open on May 19, 2025 and close on July 18, 2025. A shortlist will be announced during the first week of November followed by the winners, around a month later.
The Award’s ceremony will be hosted by the Rainbow Literature Festival – Queer & Inclusive. Winners will receive a citation and a cash award besides free entry to the two-day Festival scheduled for the first week of December in Delhi.
Submissions for the 2026 awards are now open. Click on this link to know the criteria and process. Follow us on social media for regular updates.
The Awards Ceremony:
Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive,
Gulmohar Park Club, Delhi (December, 2024).
CATEGORIES
Literature:
1. Fiction: This includes novels, graphic novels and collections of short stories by a single author or anthologies of short stories by multiple writers.
2. Non-Fiction: This includes memoirs, biographies, history, and anthologies of real life experiences by a single writer or multiple contributors to the collection.
(All submissions are to be in the English language. Translations will also be accepted as long as the original content was written in an Indian language)
Book Cover:
This includes books across all categories be it novels, graphic novels, collection of short stories, anthologies, memoirs, biographies, history, academic and poetry
(All submissions are to be covers for books in the English language. This includes books that qualify for the abovementioned categories in Fiction and Non Fiction)
Journalism:
1. Feature: The write up must be a minimum of 1200 words
2. Op-Ed: The word length should be be a minimum of 600 words
event schedule
Time
Events
Speakers
- 09:30am - 10:30am
- Room 1
Registration & opening
Steering Committee
- 10:30am - 11:00am
- Room 1
Spokesman in the world
By : Pandja Giwaksana
- 11:00am - 12:30am
- Room 2
World tour with make money
By : Ailysh Bella, Gerald Naldo
- 12:30am - 01:30pm
- Room 2
Lunch time
Steering Committee
- 01:30pm - 02:30pm
- Room 3
Freedom in Joking
By : Karina Kath, Sharoon Jay
- 02:30am - 04:30am
- Room 3
Appreciate Freebies
By : Made Jackson, Jeff Rendi
Time
Events
Speakers
- 09:30am - 10:30am
- Room 1
Registration & opening
Steering Committee
- 10:30am - 11:00am
- Room 1
Appreciate Freebies
By : Made Jackson, Jeff Rendi
- 11:00am - 12:30am
- Room 2
Freedom in Joking
By : Karina Kath, Sharoon Jay
- 12:30am - 01:30pm
- Room 2
Lunch time
Steering Committee
- 01:30pm - 02:30pm
- Room 3
World tour with make money
By : Ailysh Bella, Gerald Naldo
- 02:30am - 04:30am
- Room 3
Spokesman in the world
By : Pandja Giwaksana
Time
Events
Speakers
- 09:30am - 10:30am
- Room 1
Registration & opening
Steering Committee
- 10:30am - 11:00am
- Room 1
World tour with make money
By : Ailysh Bella, Gerald Naldo
- 11:00am - 12:30am
- Room 2
Spokesman in the world
By : Pandja Giwaksana
- 12:30am - 01:30pm
- Room 2
Lunch time
Steering Committee
- 01:30pm - 02:30pm
- Room 3
Appreciate Freebies
By : Made Jackson, Jeff Rendi
- 02:30am - 04:30am
- Room 3
Freedom in Joking
By : Karina Kath, Sharoon Jay
Parmesh Shahani
CHAIR
Parmesh Shahani is an author and an activist for LGBTQ inclusion in corporate India who has guided many of the country’s leading companies on their inclusion journeys. Most recently, he served as Vice President at Godrej Industries and founded and ran the award-winning Godrej India Culture Lab for a decade, between 2011 and 2021. His first book Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage Publications) was released in 2008 and his second book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace (Westland Business) was released in August 2020 and won the CK Prahalad Award for Best Business Book of 2021 and well as the Laadli Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2021. Parmesh holds an MS in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. He is a TED Senior Fellow, a Yale World Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and also a board member of KHOJ International Artists’ Association, and Breakthrough.
CHAIR
Poonam Saxena
Poonam Saxena is a journalist, writer, author and translator. She studied in Delhi, and did her BA and MA in History from St Stephen’s College. She went on to do an M. Phil from Delhi University. She has had a distinguished career in journalism. She was with The Hindustan Times, where she launched and edited the HT Sunday magazine, Brunch, for over ten years, before moving on to edit the weekend section. She continues to do a regular column for Hindustan Times which looks at our past through the prism of Hindi literature and Hindi cinema. She has written extensively on popular culture, film, television, books and Hindi literature. She has been on the jury of many awards, including the Crossword Jury for Best Translation.
She translates from Hindi to English and her translations include Dharamvir Bharati’s Gunahon ka Devta (Chander & Sudha, Penguin Viking), Rahi Masoom Raza’s Scene : 75 (HarperCollins), The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told (Aleph) and Udayan Vajpeyi’s Qayaas (Love Is Participation in Eternity, Bloomsbury). Most recently, she has translated the memoirs of two leading Hindi writers, Mannu Bhandari’s Ek Kahani Yeh Bhi (This Too Is a Story) and Rajendra Yadav’s Mud Mud Ke Dekhta Hoon (Echoes of My Past). Both have been published by Penguin. She was also the co-author for filmmaker Karan Johar’s memoir, An Unsuitable Boy (Penguin).
Poonam Saxena
Poonam Saxena is a journalist, writer, author and translator. She studied in Delhi, and did her BA and MA in History from St Stephen’s College. She went on to do an M. Phil from Delhi University. She has had a distinguished career in journalism. She was with The Hindustan Times, where she launched and edited the HT Sunday magazine, Brunch, for over ten years, before moving on to edit the weekend section. She continues to do a regular column for Hindustan Times which looks at our past through the prism of Hindi literature and Hindi cinema. She has written extensively on popular culture, film, television, books and Hindi literature. She has been on the jury of many awards, including the Crossword Jury for Best Translation.
She translates from Hindi to English and her translations include Dharamvir Bharati’s Gunahon ka Devta (Chander & Sudha, Penguin Viking), Rahi Masoom Raza’s Scene : 75 (HarperCollins), The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told (Aleph) and Udayan Vajpeyi’s Qayaas (Love Is Participation in Eternity, Bloomsbury). Most recently, she has translated the memoirs of two leading Hindi writers, Mannu Bhandari’s Ek Kahani Yeh Bhi (This Too Is a Story) and Rajendra Yadav’s Mud Mud Ke Dekhta Hoon (Echoes of My Past). Both have been published by Penguin. She was also the co-author for filmmaker Karan Johar’s memoir, An Unsuitable Boy (Penguin).
FICTION
Parvati Sharma
Parvati Sharma has written two historical biographies: Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal and Akbar of Hindustan. She has also written two books of history for children, The Story of Babur and Rattu & Poorie’s Adventures in History: 1857. Her debut was a collection of short stories called The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love, followed by a novella, Close to Home. Parvati lives in New Delhi, where she has studied English literature and Indian history, and worked as a travel writer, editor and journalist.
Parvati Sharma
Parvati Sharma has written two historical biographies: Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal and Akbar of Hindustan. She has also written two books of history for children, The Story of Babur and Rattu & Poorie’s Adventures in History: 1857. Her debut was a collection of short stories called The Dead Camel and Other Stories of Love, followed by a novella, Close to Home. Parvati lives in New Delhi, where she has studied English literature and Indian history, and worked as a travel writer, editor and journalist.
Saikat Majumdar
Saikat Majumdar is a novelist and critic. He is the author of five novels, most recently, The Remains of the Body, published as Penguin Random House’s 2024 Pride Month Selection. His novel, The Scent of God (2019), a story of love between two teenage boys in a Hindu monastic boarding school, was a finalist for the inaugural Mathrubhumi Book Award. His other novels include The Firebird (2015), which narrates a young boy’s destructive obsession with his mother’s life as an actress, and The Middle Finger (2022), a queer, contemporary college-campus retelling of the Ekalavya story. He has also published four books of nonfiction and criticism, including The Amateur (2024), selected by The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the Best Scholarly Books of 2024, Prose of the World (2013) and College (2018), a popular book on interdisciplinary liberal arts education in India. He has been a fellow at Wellesley College, the institutes of Advanced Study in JNU, Stellenbosch, and Budapest, and is currently Professor of English & Creative Writing at Ashoka University.
Saikat Majumdar
Saikat Majumdar is a novelist and critic. He is the author of five novels, most recently, The Remains of the Body, published as Penguin Random House’s 2024 Pride Month Selection. His novel, The Scent of God (2019), a story of love between two teenage boys in a Hindu monastic boarding school, was a finalist for the inaugural Mathrubhumi Book Award. His other novels include The Firebird (2015), which narrates a young boy’s destructive obsession with his mother’s life as an actress, and The Middle Finger (2022), a queer, contemporary college-campus retelling of the Ekalavya story. He has also published four books of nonfiction and criticism, including The Amateur (2024), selected by The Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the Best Scholarly Books of 2024, Prose of the World (2013) and College (2018), a popular book on interdisciplinary liberal arts education in India. He has been a fellow at Wellesley College, the institutes of Advanced Study in JNU, Stellenbosch, and Budapest, and is currently Professor of English & Creative Writing at Ashoka University.
NON - FICTION
Arundhati Ghosh
Arundhati is a writer, cultural practitioner, social activist and traveller. With three decades of experience in the arts and culture, she served as the Executive Director of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) between 2013 and 2023. Her awards include Chevening Clore Leadership (2015-2016), Chevening Gurukul Scholarship at London School of Economics (2005-2006), and Salzburg Global Seminar Fellowship. She contributed on advisory panels and board of the Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Blind with Camera, Sangama and Toto funds the Arts, and continues to do so for the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Shomokaleen Protibidhan, the Solidarity Foundation, and Maraa. She writes for various publications such as Scroll, The Wire, The Deccan Herald and The Hindu.
Her collection of poetry in Bangla Oshomoye phire esho nodi hoye was published in January 2023 by Lastrada Prakashan. Her book All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India was published in 2025 by Aleph Book Company and won the Non Fiction Book of the Year Award at the Rainbow Literature Festival 2025 and the Kala Shreshtha Award for Debut Author English at the Kala Literature Awards 2026. She has also co-edited a collection of essays in Bangla of daughters writing about their mothers titled Meyeder Mayera (Mothers of Daughters) published by Sonta Prokashona in 2026. She writes a monthly column on relationships titled Ties and Knots for the Deccan Herald. She consults and trains for the cultural and not-for-profit sector.
Arundhati Ghosh
Arundhati is a writer, cultural practitioner, social activist and traveller. With three decades of experience in the arts and culture, she served as the Executive Director of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) between 2013 and 2023. Her awards include Chevening Clore Leadership (2015-2016), Chevening Gurukul Scholarship at London School of Economics (2005-2006), and Salzburg Global Seminar Fellowship. She contributed on advisory panels and board of the Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Blind with Camera, Sangama and Toto funds the Arts, and continues to do so for the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Shomokaleen Protibidhan, the Solidarity Foundation, and Maraa. She writes for various publications such as Scroll, The Wire, The Deccan Herald and The Hindu.
Her collection of poetry in Bangla Oshomoye phire esho nodi hoye was published in January 2023 by Lastrada Prakashan. Her book All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India was published in 2025 by Aleph Book Company and won the Non Fiction Book of the Year Award at the Rainbow Literature Festival 2025 and the Kala Shreshtha Award for Debut Author English at the Kala Literature Awards 2026. She has also co-edited a collection of essays in Bangla of daughters writing about their mothers titled Meyeder Mayera (Mothers of Daughters) published by Sonta Prokashona in 2026. She writes a monthly column on relationships titled Ties and Knots for the Deccan Herald. She consults and trains for the cultural and not-for-profit sector.
Narayani Basu
Narayani Basu is the bestselling author of V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India (2020) and Allegiance: Azaadi & the End of Empire (2022). A historian and biographer, she focuses on the less known but key players in the story of Indian independence. A Man for All Seasons, the biography of K.M Panikkar is her third book and has already garnered critical and popular acclaim.
Narayani Basu
Narayani Basu is the bestselling author of V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India (2020) and Allegiance: Azaadi & the End of Empire (2022). A historian and biographer, she focuses on the less known but key players in the story of Indian independence. A Man for All Seasons, the biography of K.M Panikkar is her third book and has already garnered critical and popular acclaim.
BOOK COVER
Raqeeb Raza
Raqeeb is a Delhi-based photographer, filmmaker, and researcher from Kolkata, exploring male sexuality and queer intimacy in the Indian context. His work has been featured in national and international platforms like Vice India, Vogue India, Harper’s Bazaar India, Cosmopolitan India, and Homegrown. A two-time nominee for LGBTQIA+ Voice of the Year at the Cosmo India Blogger Awards (2020, 2022), he has exhibited at Khoj Studios, Delhi and Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai. Raqeeb works as a Senior Video Producer at The Quint & TimeOut India and is pursuing a PhD program at Jamia Millia Islamia. His filmography includes co-directorials: Our Satrangi Jahaan (2022) produced by Lotus Visual Productions and B25 (2024)produced by Rough Edges screened at Habitat Film Festival, Ankara Pinklife Queerfest Turkey, IDFF Bhubaneshwar, Dialogues Film Festival Kolkata among others.
Raqeeb Raza
Raqeeb is a Delhi-based photographer, filmmaker, and researcher from Kolkata, exploring male sexuality and queer intimacy in the Indian context. His work has been featured in national and international platforms like Vice India, Vogue India, Harper’s Bazaar India, Cosmopolitan India, and Homegrown. A two-time nominee for LGBTQIA+ Voice of the Year at the Cosmo India Blogger Awards (2020, 2022), he has exhibited at Khoj Studios, Delhi and Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai. Raqeeb works as a Senior Video Producer at The Quint & TimeOut India and is pursuing a PhD program at Jamia Millia Islamia. His filmography includes co-directorials: Our Satrangi Jahaan (2022) produced by Lotus Visual Productions and B25 (2024)produced by Rough Edges screened at Habitat Film Festival, Ankara Pinklife Queerfest Turkey, IDFF Bhubaneshwar, Dialogues Film Festival Kolkata among others.
Samar Jodha
Samar Jodha is a transdisciplinary artist and TED speaker whose thirty-five year practice spans South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa, moving between large-scale installation, documentary work, and community-based art with a sustained focus on identity, memory, and lives lived at the margins. Major works include Bhopal: A Silent Picture, seen by over 350,000 visitors across three continents, and Outpost at the 55th Venice Biennale. He is the founder of Red Balloon Global, a creative youth organisation using art and storytelling as tools for social change.
Samar Jodha
Samar Jodha is a transdisciplinary artist and TED speaker whose thirty-five year practice spans South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa, moving between large-scale installation, documentary work, and community-based art with a sustained focus on identity, memory, and lives lived at the margins. Major works include Bhopal: A Silent Picture, seen by over 350,000 visitors across three continents, and Outpost at the 55th Venice Biennale. He is the founder of Red Balloon Global, a creative youth organisation using art and storytelling as tools for social change.
OP ED
Maisnam Arnapal
Maisnam Arnapal is a researcher in Feminist and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and 2026 Sarah Pettit Fellow at Yale University. He is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Orfalea Center for Global Studies, Center for Feminist Futures, and Center for Taiwan Studies. Maisnam was part of the first Rainbow Lit Fest 2019 and again in 2024. He was also a co-editor of Consciously Speaking (2021), an initiative of Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive and AvianWe.
Maisnam Arnapal
Maisnam Arnapal is a researcher in Feminist and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and 2026 Sarah Pettit Fellow at Yale University. He is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Orfalea Center for Global Studies, Center for Feminist Futures, and Center for Taiwan Studies. Maisnam was part of the first Rainbow Lit Fest 2019 and again in 2024. He was also a co-editor of Consciously Speaking (2021), an initiative of Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive and AvianWe.
Nikhil Pandhi
Nikhil Pandhi (he/they) is a sociocultural anthropologist, queer-feminist researcher, and award-winning anti-caste literary translator from India. His translations have received international acclaim, including the inaugural PEN Presents Award from English PEN. He teaches at Dartmouth College, where he holds a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows. He earned his PhD in Anthropology from Princeton University, and an MPhil from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi.
Nikhil Pandhi
Nikhil Pandhi (he/they) is a sociocultural anthropologist, queer-feminist researcher, and award-winning anti-caste literary translator from India. His translations have received international acclaim, including the inaugural PEN Presents Award from English PEN. He teaches at Dartmouth College, where he holds a postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows. He earned his PhD in Anthropology from Princeton University, and an MPhil from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi.
FEATURES
Saurabh Sharma
Saurabh Sharma is a Delhi-based queer writer and culture critic. They are on Instagram/X as @writerly_life.
Saurabh Sharma
Saurabh Sharma is a Delhi-based queer writer and culture critic. They are on Instagram/X as @writerly_life.
Tejaswi Subramanium
Tejaswi Subramanian (they/she) is a writer, editor, and cultural critic whose work explores queer imagination, intimacy, representation, and the politics of storytelling across film and literature. Their practice moves between journalism, long-form narrative, and creative production, tracing how stories shape identity, belonging, and collective memory.
As editor of Gaysi Family, they have helped cultivate a platform dedicated to queer voices and cultural discourse, working closely with writers to refine narrative structure, tone, and craft. Their essays and reported work examine gender, sexuality, workplace culture, disability, and wellbeing, engaging with both personal narrative and structural analysis.
Alongside their editorial work, Tejaswi has developed film and audio storytelling projects that translate complex social realities into accessible, resonant forms, always attentive to voice, rhythm, and lived experience. Across mediums, their work is guided by a belief in storytelling as both aesthetic practice and cultural intervention, a space where imagination and politics meet.
Tejaswi Subramanium
Tejaswi Subramanian (they/she) is a writer, editor, and cultural critic whose work explores queer imagination, intimacy, representation, and the politics of storytelling across film and literature. Their practice moves between journalism, long-form narrative, and creative production, tracing how stories shape identity, belonging, and collective memory.
As editor of Gaysi Family, they have helped cultivate a platform dedicated to queer voices and cultural discourse, working closely with writers to refine narrative structure, tone, and craft. Their essays and reported work examine gender, sexuality, workplace culture, disability, and wellbeing, engaging with both personal narrative and structural analysis.
Alongside their editorial work, Tejaswi has developed film and audio storytelling projects that translate complex social realities into accessible, resonant forms, always attentive to voice, rhythm, and lived experience. Across mediums, their work is guided by a belief in storytelling as both aesthetic practice and cultural intervention, a space where imagination and politics meet.
Process Partner
Supporting Organisations
Co-ordinator
Rohin Bhatt
Rohin Bhatt (he/they) is a non-binary queer rights activist, lawyer and bioethicist. He currently works with Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover. He graduated from Gujarat National Law University in 2021 with a B.Sc. LL.B. (Hons.) and with a Master of Bioethics at Harvard Medical School in 2022. He is a co-founder of the Indian Bioethics Project at Gujarat National Law University which aims to bring Indian voices to the intersections of law, medicine and bioethics.
Apart from being a regular contributor to The Leaflet where he writes on issues of queer rights, reproductive justice and constitutional law, his work both public platforms such as the Hindu, The Indian Express, India Forum, The Probe, and the Wire Science and academic journals like The Law School Policy Review, The Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Voices in Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report. His work focuses on constitutional law, and bioethics, with a particular focus on feminist and queer approaches to bioethics to make healthcare policies and laws more accessible for queer persons, and the effects fascism has on human rights and their intersections.
Rohin Bhatt
Rohin Bhatt (he/they) is a non-binary queer rights activist, lawyer and bioethicist. He currently works with Senior Advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover. He graduated from Gujarat National Law University in 2021 with a B.Sc. LL.B. (Hons.) and with a Master of Bioethics at Harvard Medical School in 2022. He is a co-founder of the Indian Bioethics Project at Gujarat National Law University which aims to bring Indian voices to the intersections of law, medicine and bioethics.
Apart from being a regular contributor to The Leaflet where he writes on issues of queer rights, reproductive justice and constitutional law, his work both public platforms such as the Hindu, The Indian Express, India Forum, The Probe, and the Wire Science and academic journals like The Law School Policy Review, The Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Voices in Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report. His work focuses on constitutional law, and bioethics, with a particular focus on feminist and queer approaches to bioethics to make healthcare policies and laws more accessible for queer persons, and the effects fascism has on human rights and their intersections.
For any queries related to the process for submissions, we encourage you to go through the FAQ section
If you don’t find your answers there, please write to Yash Sharma, at contact@therainbowawards.in.
The Awards are a genre-supporting initiative of the Dwijen Dinanath Arts Foundation. Please write to the Founder, Sharif D Rangnekar at sdrangnekar@gmail.com, for more information on the Foundation and to find ways in supporting these Awards and other initiatives.
The Foundation holds an 80G and CSR1 certificate from the Government of India.
DWIJEN DINANATH ARTS FOUNDATION
A6, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi – 110049
Email: sdrangnekar@gmail.com
Contact us | Privacy Policy | 80G Certificate | CSR Certificate
A Learning and Genre-supporting Initiative of the Dwijen Dinanath Arts Foundation.
Does A Big Candy Casino offer a mobile application?
A Big Candy Casino app is available for download on both iOS and Android devices https://www.bricklink.com/aboutMe.asp?u=abigcandycasino for easy gaming while on the move.