The A.C. Bose Grant

for South Asian Speculative Literature

OPEN JANUARY 1, 2025 – JANUARY 31, 2025

Award: $1,000 USD.

Winner announced March 15, 2025.

In 2019, the Speculative Literature Foundation and DesiLit co-sponsored the A.C. Bose Grant in memory of Ashim Chandra Bose, a lover of books—especially science fiction and fantasy. Bose’s children, Rupa Bose and Gautam Bose, founded the grant to honor the legacy of the worlds their father opened up for them. The donors hope that this grant will help develop work that will let young people imagine different worlds and possibilities. 

The A.C. Bose Grant annually provides $1,000 to South Asian or Desi diaspora writers developing speculative fiction. South Asia encompasses the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Work that is accessible to older children and teens will be given preference in the jury process. 

This grant, as with all SLF grants, is intended to help writers working with speculative literature. Speculative literature spans the breadth of fantastic writing, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy, including ghost stories, horror, folk and fairy tales, slipstream, magical realism, and more. Any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element would fall under our aegis.

This grant is awarded on the basis of merit. If awarded the grant, the recipient agrees to provide a brief excerpt from their work and an autobiographical statement describing themselves and their writing (500-1,000 words) for our files and for public dissemination on our website and mailing list.

Please note that the goal of these grants is to help as many writers as possible, so recent winners can reapply but will be considered low-priority within a 2-year window of winning.

Grant Application Process

The application form for the A.C. Bose Grant is only active during the open submission period: 12:00AM January 1, 2025 – 11:59PM January 31, 2025 (All times UTC -4). Required materials include:

    • A cover letter: Include a short (less than 500 words) autobiographical statement about yourself and your work and a bibliography of previously published work, if applicable. Applicants need not have prior publishing credits to apply.
    • A writing sample: Up to 5,000 words of fiction. If you are sending a segment of a novel, novella, or novelette, please include a one-page synopsis as the first page of the document. The submitted work must be speculative, as defined above.
Jurors will deliberate with the goal of announcing winners by March 15th, 2025.

Accessibility

If you are unable to use the form for accessibility reasons, please use the form below or send an email to grants@speculativeliterature.org, and an alternative means of submission will be provided for you.

Testimonials