4 Indian authors in DSC Prize fray

Four Indian authors and one writer each from Pakistani and Afghan origin are in the fray for this year's DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the winner of which will be announced at the ongoing Nepal Literature Festival here on Monday. Amitabha Bagchi, Madhuri Vijay, Manoranjan Byapari and Raj Kamal Jha, and Jamil Jan Kochai and Sadia Abbas are the six shortlisted authors drawn from diverse backgrounds and whose writings span a wide canvas of South Asian life for the USD 25,000 prize.

The shortlisted novella are "Half the Night is Gone" (Bagchi), "99 Nights in Logar" (Kochai), "The Far Field" (Vijay), "There's Gunpowder in the Air" (Byapari and translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha), "The City and the Sea" (Jha), and "The Empty Room" (Abbas). According to the presenters, the DSC Prize 2019 shortlist highlights the "increasing globalisation of South Asian writing" as half these authors are based outside the region.

New and diverse voices find a place in the shortlist which includes three debut novelists including two women writers, as well as a novel that has been translated from Bengali. There authors bring to the readers a wide and vivid panorama of South Asian life in different geographies.

An international jury panel headed by Harish Trivedi, former Professor of English at the University of Delhi who has written extensively on colonial and post colonial literature, will chose the winner on the concluding day of the festival. The other members of the jury are Jeremy Tambling, Kunda Dixit, Carmen Wickramagamage and Rifat Munim.

The jury has gone through 90 novels that were received this year and a longlist of 16 was announced in New Delhi and a shortlist of six in London. The prize which is specifically focused on South Asian fiction writing has a tradition of announcing its winner in a different South Asian country every year. Previous winners have been announced in Galle in Sri Lanka, Dhaka and Kolkata.

Constituted by Surina Narula and Manhad Narula in 2010, the prize celebrates and showcases the best talent writing about the South Asian region. Commenting on the award ceremony in Nepal this year, Surina Narula, co-founder of the prize said, "Both the prize and the festival share a common vision to promote and highlight South Asian literature, and there is a rich literary landscape in Nepal which I hope will benefit from this partnership."

According to Ajit Baral, director of the IME Nepal Literature Festival, "The DSC Prize is a prestigious literary award that has done much to bring international recognition to South Asian literature over the years. "We are excited to have this opportunity to introduce a medley of some of the finest writers writing about South Asia, who would be present at the festival as part of the announcement, to the Nepali audience." PTI ZMN RDS

RDS

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