Daily Beast, Open Hands Initiative to offer $25,000 prize to South Asian journalists, writers

$25,000 prize started for South Asian journalists

NEW YORK — A $25,000 prize has been established for journalists and writers from South Asia.

The Daily Beast-Open Hands Prize for Commentary in South Asia is co-sponsored by the online magazine The Daily Beast and the Open Hands Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “improving people-to-people understanding.”

The prize also includes a residency at the Norman Mailer writer’s colony in Provincetown, Mass., and a biweekly column for one year at The Daily Beast.

Daily Beast founder Tina Brown said in a statement Monday that she was inspired to start the award after attending the Jaipur (JY’-por) Literature Festival in India and becoming “more aware of the brilliant literary and journalistic voices that exist in South Asia.”

The first prize will be awarded at the festival in January 2011.