Mangalore teacher wins global story contest

MANGALORE: Geralyn Pinto, head of the department of English at St Agnes College, Mangalore, has won the 2014 Desi Writers Lounge (DWL) International Short Story Contest.
She is one of the three prize winners from among the hundreds of participants worldwide. Geralyn said she feels privileged to be the winner once again; she won the contest last year too.Her short story "addresses the painful, yet extremely pertinent issue of female infanticide", she said.
The DWL judge said in her short story, Shanthi Smells of Smoke, "Geralyn transports the readers into Teen Taro, a once-beautiful village, visited seasonally by a mystery fever that claims the lives of many children". The judge said the story quickly establishes the melancholy and fear that pervades the villagers.
DWL is an online 24x7x365 writers' workshop and community, where members and writers undergo intense critiquing sessions.
Geralyn had won fourth place for her short story, No Talking After Lights Out in Save as Writers, an international open-themed creative writing contest. The competition was held at Canterbury, England, in 2013.