New York City writer and actor, Rachel Astarte Piccione, has won Second Prize in the Katha: Indian-American Fiction Contest 2004, hosted by INDIA CURRENTS and KHABAR magazines.

(PRWEB) July 2, 2004 -- Rachel Astarte Piccione has won Second Prize in the Katha: Indian-American Fiction Contest 2004, hosted by INDIA CURRENTS and KHABAR magazines. Her winning short story, "Akeli," will be published in the July 2004 issues of both magazines, and can be viewed on the India Currents website at http://www.indiacurrents.com/.

Ashok Jethanandani, editor of India Currents, relayed that there were eighty-four entries into this year's contest and the judges were "very pleased" with their quality. The First Prize story was Amit Majmudar's "The Troubles of Taqlif Husain."

Ms. Piccione is a professional writer and actor living in New York City. Primarily a screenwriter and novelist, she was also the 1996 Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College and has studied acting at Loughborough University (UK) and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is the co-founder and Executive Creative Director of Bardos Films, Inc., a company dedicated to uniting cultures through the globalization of cinema. Her first Indo-American feature script has garnered interest in Bombay, Los Angeles, and New York, and the film is currently in early negotiations.

Ms. Piccione says she is "more than honored" to have received Second Prize in this year's Katha: Indian-American Fiction Contest.