Shiv Nadar University Delhi-NCR has concluded the third edition of its Crooked Lines Literature Festival, marking a full day of readings, discussions and recognition for emerging writers. Organised by the Department of English under the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the festival centred on the Crooked Lines Short Story Competition, which offered a combined prize of Rs 1,00,000 for young participants.

The short story competition saw 450 submissions from school students across India. Thirty longlisted writers were invited to the Greater Noida campus with their chaperones to take part in the programme, which included panel discussions and a prize-giving ceremony. The top three winners, Krishnam Kapila, Akshita Ganesh and Zaina Ahmed, were recognised by members of the festival jury.

The event brought together several established figures from contemporary literature and the arts. Among those addressing participants were novelist and scriptwriter Prof Sam North from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, Prof Jonathan Cook, Professor Emeritus at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, actor and director Ratna Pathak Shah, HarperCollins India commissioning editor Trisha Bora, and Indian novelist and filmmaker Samit Basu. Their sessions reflected on writing, creativity and the changing landscape of authorship.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Ananya Mukherjee described the festival as a space where words and human connection remain central. She noted that technological acceleration heightens the need for new ways of imagining and telling stories. In another session, Prof Cook commented on the rise of AI-generated texts and observed that readers may increasingly demand clarity on whether a work is human-written.

The festival also featured a screening of the 1996 film Matilda, adapted from Roald Dahl’s novel. With more than 150 attendees present, the university stated that it plans to continue hosting similar initiatives to support young writers and broaden literary engagement.