The Wingword Poetry Prize 2024 Award Ceremony took place at the Delhi Poetry Slam headquarters on 15th December 2024 and was attended by participants, commendable mentions, and winners from around the country. Poets had traveled with their families and loved ones to the function where they received recognition for their writing.
The award ceremony had chief guest, Meenakshi M. Singh, a prolific poet writing in English and Hindi, published author, mom, entrepreneur, and a certified creative writer with 10 years of IT experience with post-graduation in computer systems. Award-winning author of 4 books—Cupid@Corporate, I Am Enough, Soulful Symphony, and Awaz—she is the founder and CHO (Chief Happiness Officer) of “Creative Happiness,” an organization focused on fostering creative expression and motivating the spirit of reading and writing.
The ceremony saw winners perform their winning pieces for the audience, talk about their inspiration, and receive their prizes and certificates on stage. Some of the winners who attended the award ceremony were:
1st Prize: "Dear Baba" by Ilina Sinha from Assam 2nd Prize: "My Mother" by Neelima Chakraborty from Faridabad 3rd Prize: "The Seat of All Problems" by Satish Pendharkar from Pune. In the English category, they received prize money of 50,000, 30,000, and 20,000 Rupees, respectively.
In the Regional Category all three prize winners were also present, 1st Prize: ఆత్మవిశ్వాసం(Telegu) by Rekha NMS, 2nd Prize: एक वृक्ष की आत्मकथा (Hindi) by Jaya Mishra, 3rd Prize: था वोबचपन (Hindi) by Satya Deo Pathak receiving 25,000, 15,000 and 10,000 Rupees respectively.
This year, Wingword published 500 long-listed poets in beautiful poetry anthologies to offer them further recognition. Some poets who were published in a book for the first time basked in the glory of seeing their works in print for the very first time. Some of the titles of the anthology this year were Voices from the Edge, The Hour of the Sun, Only Yesterday, and Tribute to Languages.
The first prize winner of Wingword, Ilina Sinha, will now be given 6 months to create her poetry manuscript, which will subsequently be published by Delhi Poetry Slam. The organizers spoke to Ilina about the kind of poetry she wants to present to the world. This being her debut collection of poetry, she hopes to create an impact and push out ideas that she holds close to her heart.
Ilina Sinha is the first prize winner of the 2024 Wingword Poetry Prize (summer cycle) for her poem ‘Dear Baba,’ receiving a cash prize of INR 50,000 and a book publication deal. She writes in English and Bishnupriya Manipuri (a language recognized by UNESCO as endangered). Most recently, she delivered a talk on endangered languages at TED IITG and represented the language on World Mother Tongue Day 2022 courtesy of an invitation from Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
At present, she is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Guwahati. Prior to this, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Girijananda Chowdhury University, Assam, and in the industry as an Artificial Intelligence Engineer at IQVIA, India.
A PhD student by the day and a poet in the stillness of midnight, she identifies herself as a perpetual student in the class of poetry and a devoted admirer of all forms of arts and creativity.
Other winners also expressed and discussed their literary plans with us and ways in which we can support them so that their writing can be read and known across the globe. Only through poetry, the whole world can know and understand the philosophies, thought processes, and artistic capabilities of us Indians. So it becomes extremely important to create grounds for Indian poets who write in English, so we as a people can be known and understood by the world out there. This is the aim of Wingword, creating a bridge so that our thoughts and ideas can be sent out—art cannot be limited by borders, art has always been global.
We are very excited to see what our winners do in the literary world in the future. And as sponsors of Wingword Poetry Competition, we extend our full support and best wishes to all participants of the competition.