New Delhi, Apr 27 (IANS): A new prize for journalists and columnists covering South Asia has been instituted to promote new voices in the region, US-based news website the Daily Beast said Thursday.

A joint initiative of the Daily Beast, the Newsweek magazine and the non-profit organisation Open Hands Initiative, the award consists of $25,000 in cash, a month's residency at the Norman Mailer and Writers' Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and an opportunity to write a bi-weekly column for a year on the Daily Beast, according to the Daily's statement.

The aim of the prize is to promote and support the work of an individual, who has "contributed thoughtful, important and engaging commentary on the political, social and cultural issues in the region". The prize will be awarded June 20 in New York, the statement said.

According to the Daily Beast, editors, publishers and writers across South Asia will be asked to nominate their best English language columnists and journalists by sending three to five examples of their work and a letter explaining why that particular individual deserves the recognition.

The jury comprises writer and historian William Dalrymple, editor of Newsweek International Tunku Varadarajan, Newsweek and the Daily Beast books editor Lucas Wittmann, author and journalist Harold Evans, and executive producer of National Public Radio Madhulika Sikka, the Daily Beast statement said.