Kiran Kaur Saini is the winner of the Speculative Literature Foundation’s 2023 AC Bose Grant.

Saini’s winning piece is “The Color of Conflagration” which extrapolates from present-day movements seeking to flatten the experiences of marginalized communities. It is one meditation on the individual and collective ramifications of the violence of erasure—silencing personal and cultural experience through legislation, technology, and surveillance.

Kiran Kaur Saini is a Punjabi-American writer whose stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Gulf Coast, The Masters Review, and elsewhere, and have been translated into Spanish and selected for Best of the Year anthology inclusion. A 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles film industry, Kiran stepped away from her career in film production at the start of the pandemic to become a full-time caregiver to her 89-year-old mom. She is currently an Associate Editor for Podcastle.

The AC Bose Grant, cosponsored by the SLF and DesiLit, has been offering support to South Asian / South Asian diaspora writers working within the speculative fiction genre.  While applicants may submit adult works, the grant is also accessible to teen authors who take priority during the review process.  The AC Bose Grant was founded by Rupa and Gautam Bose in memory of their father, Ashim Chandra Bose, who fostered a love of reading and science fiction in his children in the hope that it will continue to nourish promising works in the genre that continue to move and inspire us all.

Founded in January 2004 to promote literary quality in speculative fiction, the all-volunteer Speculative Literature Foundation is led by Mary Anne Mohanraj and 30 other committed volunteers.

[Based on a press release.]