Shortlist for India’s JCB Prize for Literature announced

The shortlist for India’s richest literary award, the Rs 2.5 million (A$51,800) JCB Prize for Literature, has been announced.

The shortlisted works of fiction are:

• Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction (Roshan Ali, Penguin Random House India)
• There’s Gunpowder in the Air (Manoranjan Byapari, trans by Arunava Sinha, Westland Publications)
• A Lonely Harvest (Perumul Murgan, trans by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Penguin Random House India)
• Trial by Silence (Perumul Murgan, trans by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Penguin Random House India)
• My Father’s Garden (Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Speaking Tiger)
• The Far Field (Madhuri Vijay, Grove Press).

Each shortlisted author receive Rs 100,000 (A$2100). For works in translation, winning translators receive Rs one million (A$21,000) and shortlisted translators receive Rs 50,000 (A$1000).

Now in its second year, the prize was established in 2018 to ‘help readers across the world discover the very best of contemporary Indian literature’ and celebrate the ‘scale and diversity of a literature written in over 20 languages’. The winner of the inaugural prize was Benyamin for Jasmine Days (trans by Shahnaz Habib, Juggernaut Books).

The winner of the 2019 prize will be announced on 2 November. For more information, visit the website.

Category: Awards International news