The Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize for the year 2019 will be presented to the winner, Prashant Parvataneni, at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) 2020 on 25 January, 2020 at Vidyaranya High School, Saifabad.
Prashant Parvataneni, a 27-year old independent writer and artist based in Bangalore, was chosen for the prestigious prize from a field of 170 contestants from around the country by a jury consisting of the eminent poet, playwright, and artist, Dr. Gieve Patel and two faculty members of the University of Hyderabad. The Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize was instituted by the Hyderabad-based Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust to recognize excellence in poetry written in English by poets in the age group of 20-40 years.
Preceding the presentation of the prize, the writer, Jerry Pinto, and poet and previous winner of the Rayaprol Prize, Aishwarya Iyer will celebrate Srinivas Rayaprol through a reading from a new book of letters exchanged between Rayaprol and the American poet, William Carlos Williams. The editor of the book, Graziano Kratli, a Yale University Librarian, will speak about Rayaprol and also present the Prize to Prashant Parvataneni.