Winners

Be inspired by meeting Wingword Poetry Prize winners, who have added a fresh dimension to the way we think about poetry. We’re proud to honour promising writing by emerging poets in India.

Since 2017, the annual poetry competition has been driven to find authentic voices from nooks and corners of India. We continue to be on this mission that serves to illuminate the works of poets who have not yet received any major attention in the field of poetry. A prize at Wingword is a prestigious breakthrough for each of our chosen winners.

Nandana Dev Sen is the first prize winner of the 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in the English language category for her poem ‘Daybreak’, receiving a cash prize of ₹ 50,000. Click here to read the poem.

A writer, child-rights activist, and actor, Nandana is the author of six children’s books, and two collections of her translations of the poetry of her mother, Nabaneeta Dev Sen. After studying English Literature at Harvard and filmmaking at USC, she worked as a book editor, a screenwriter, a script doctor, a poetry translator, a short film maker, and as Princess Jasmine in Disneyland. She is the Child Protection Ambassador for Save the Children India and an Author Advocate for Girls' Education for Room to Read. Nandana lives in New York, London, and Kolkata, and loves to eat, bike, rhyme, dance, and argue.

Bibhusha Rai is the second prize winner of the 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in the English language category for her poem ‘Darjeeling Tea’, receiving a cash prize of ₹ 25,000. Click here to read the poem.

Bibhusha holds a BA and MA in English Literature from Delhi University. She hails from Darjeeling. Having worked on a research project with the Confluence Collective on Darjeeling’s tea gardens for the past year, she gained a renewed understanding of tea’s significance in regard to the Darjeeling Gorkha identity. Most of her works speak on the intersection of food and identity.

Her writing has been featured in online journals such as The Alipore Post.

Navjyot Kaur Vilain is the third prize winner of the 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in the English language category for her poem ‘Barren’, receiving a cash prize of  ₹ 15,000. Click here to read the poem.

Navjyot a poet of Indian origin, born in the UK and living in rural France. She writes poetry that digs deep within the individual to shine a light upon and reveal one's inner landscape, bringing the sub-conscious into the conscious mind. Her spiritual path is her guiding compass to bring transformation of the Self and deep-seated change into the world. This is is profoundly felt within her poetry.

Her poetry has been published in Kindred Spirit Magazine, ROAR Feminine Rising Magazine and Braided Way.

Suniti Kumar Maiti has been conferred as the first prize winner of 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in Regional Languages category for his poem ‘অভিসার’, receiving a cash prize of ₹ 30,000. Click here to read the poem.

Born on 25th April 1949, in Midnapor, Suniti Kumar Maiti believes writing comes to him naturally and instinctively. Maiti’s poem was first published at a tender age of 11 years. He received the first prize in an open to all classes essay competition on Rabindra Nath Tagore's 'Dakghar' in class Nine. The little magazine "পতঞ্জলি"published one of his Bengali poems along with a poem of the great Bengali poet Jay Goswami. His English poem "The Twilight tryst"  has been published in America in an online journal "Indian Periodical". Maiti believes he does not write poems, poems themselves come to him. He only gracefully welcomes and captures them in his diary. Poems are like divine guests to him and writing poems is like a divine induction, the inspiration for which comes down from heaven on to him.

Sibu Kumar Das has been selected as the second prize winner of 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in the Regional Languages Category for his poem ‘ମହାନଦୀକୁ ବିଚିତ୍ର ସମୟର ଡ଼ାକ’, receiving a cash prize of ₹ 20,000. Click here to read the poem.

Sibu is a post-graduate in English Literature from Utkal University. After a brief stint as a lecturer in colleges in Odisha, he joined a Public-sector bank as a Probationary Officer. He retired from his service in bank in 2016 and has been spending his time in reading and writing. He reads and writes in English, Odia, Bengali and Hindi. He has been occasionally published in magazines and newspapers. Literature has been his life-long passion, starting from his days in school.

Spondon Ganguli has been chosen as the third prize winner of 2022 Wingword Poetry Prize in the Regional Languages category his poem ‘তুমি আমার প্রভু’, receiving a cash prize of ₹ 10,000. Click here to read the poem.

Spondon is a teacher in the field of ICT for the past 22 years. Apart from this, he was also coordinator and project in-charge of various national and international events in his school and successfully conducted his work bring name and fame to the school and helping the students to achieve new heights.

Spondon is is the author of five books to date in both English and Bengali, titled Forgotten Love Unforgotten Love, Moner Obhibekti Ek Guccho Kobitaye, Let Me Hold Your Hand, Do Not Leave Me and Phira Asha.