National Book Foundation (NBF) would award Rs 1.2 million to the best writers of `National Writing Competition 2009-10'. Afshan Sajid, Assistant Director NBF said that the writers can send three copies of their writing material in English, Urdu and regional language before October 31 along with their CVs.
The writing competition is aimed at promoting kids literature, developing reading habits, increasing harmony among children, parents and teachers and creating children interest in additional reading material besides text books.
Giving details of the competition, the director said, those books, which were part of any competition of NBF, would not be eligible to participate again, fresh and new writings would be entertained. Afshan said that the detailed advertisement carrying criteria for the competition has been published through print media last week.
A total of 48 awards in various categories would be given to winning writers, the first winner would bag Rs 40,000, second Rs 30,000, third Rs 20,000 and the fourth would get Rs 10,000 respectively.
Under the competition, books for children aged between four to sixteen years in three different categories would be written under four topics including Science and Technology, Social Sciences, Social Values and Pictorial Stories.
Science and Technology group, include the category of Everyday Sciences, Health and Nutrition, Earth and Atmosphere, Environmental Issues and its Solutions, Preparation against Calamities, Games and Quiz.
In Social Studies group, the categories are Pakistan-its Geography, Places and People, Travelogue, Children Poems, Novel, Regional Folk and Short Stories, Drama and National Heroes.
The categories in the Social Values group include Women Role in Society, Peace and Tolerance, Ethics and Values. In the Pictorial Stories group, the categories are Picture Stories, Humorous Stories, Poster and Charts.
The Assistant Director said that the awards will be given to those writers who would author best books on different topics of kids interest. Through this scheme, the children literature would be promoted to great extent and ample books would be available for them. The foundation would provide 500 hundred copies of the top merit books of the competition to the school libraries.
To make the market accessible for writer and publishers, the foundation would play its role to fill the gaps between them, she added. The foundation is striving to promote reading habits among children and making studies interesting for coming generations. The results announced by NBF would be final and could not be challenged in any court.