Click for Entry Form

Last Date for receiving entries is June 15, 2013

The post Entries Open for 2014 Prize appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Deepa Kumar

Deepa Kumar is an independent consultant in arts and cultural management based out of Delhi. She has been a part of the DSC Prize since its inception in 2010. At present, she is also the Project Head for JUMPSTART (a German Book Office initiative) and has been handling other projects initiated by the Frankfurt Book Fair in India including managing the ‘LitCam’ in 2011.

She was a programme co-ordinator for art and cultural affairs at the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan (Delhi) between 2008 to 2010, during which time she specialized in curating and organizing visual arts events in the field of photography, art films, painting and installation based projects.

She has worked as the Gallery Manager at the Queens Gallery at British Council and Anant Art Gallery, as well as been the Creative co-ordinator for the India Art Summit 2008.

A graduate of the Lady Shri Ram College (L.S.R, Delhi), Deepa studied Fine Art at Delhi College of Art, which then led her to specialize in oil painting under the guidance of Rameshwar Broota.

The post Deepa Kumar appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

New York Times

Guardian Online

BBC News

English PEN

Evening Standard

Bloomberg

The Asian Writer

The post DSC Prize 2013 Winner Announcement Coverage appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

 Narcopolis emerges as the winner from a shortlist of six to take the US $50,000 DSC Prize

Jaipur, January 25, 2013:  Third time’s a charm and it was for India as Jeet Thayil became the first Indian author to win the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013, now in its third edition. The US $50,000 DSC Prize along with a unique trophy was given away by celebrated actor Sharmila Tagore at a ceremony attended by renowned literary figures and authors during the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival. Jeet Thayil won this prestigious prize for his debut novel Narcopolis (Faber & Faber London), a prime example of the fresh voices that the region is beginning to inspire and which the DSC Prize is helping bring to the fore.

A well known poet and now novelist, Thayil won the prize from a shortlist of six which also included Jamil Ahmad: The Wandering Falcon (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India); Tahmima Anam: The Good Muslim (Penguin Books); Amitav Ghosh: River of Smoke (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India); Mohammed Hanif: Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (Random House India); Uday Prakash: The Walls of Delhi (Translated by Jason Grunebaum; UWA Publishing, W. Australia).

The DSC Prize 2013 was judged by a diverse and distinguished Jury comprising of K Satchidanandan (Chair), Muneeza Shamsie, Rick Simonson, Suvani Singh and Eleanor O’Keeffe. The shortlist was announced in November 2012 in London.

There were 81 entries for the prize this year, comprising authors and translators across India, Australia, UK, US, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc, reflecting the importance of South Asia’s rapidly expanding book market. India is currently the world’s third largest English-language book market (after the USA and UK), and is set to become the largest within the next ten years (according to a BBC Report, May 2012).

Commenting on the award, K Satchidandan, the DSC Prize 2013 Jury Chair said “I am very happy about the whole process of selection for the DSC Prize, 2013. It was a pleasure to go through the 81 books, mostly novels, submitted by the publishers for the prize that offered me a peek into the life and literature of South Asia with its identity conflicts, religious fanaticisms, developmental anxieties, domestic agonies, the pains of exile, eerie underworlds, the anguish of marginalization, the traumas of modernization and globalization and the dreams of a more just and egalitarian world.”

“The novel that has won the prize, chosen after due deliberations and the filtering processes of long listing and short listing, reflects many of these issues with extreme verbal artistry and lyrical intensity and I believe, the choice enhances the credibility and the prestige of the Prize itself. Narcopolis mixes fantasy and reality to create a powerful story that deals with a less known aspect of life in a metropolis like Bombay where episodes collapse into one another as in the tales of Vikramaditya telling an interminable tale about the less fortunate and the less visible human beings of the city. I am happy for the winner and happy too for DSC that has instituted a unique prize that sets a benchmark for imaginative writing on South Asia.”, he added, speaking about the winning novel.

Manhad Narula from the DSC Prize said “Thayil’s Narcopolis made waves this past year, turning up on several shortlists and garnering glittering reviews. I extend my heartiest congratulations to Jeet for a book that has unearthed and presented a rare, unfiltered, inside view into a lesser known world that exists within South Asia. The DSC Prize 2013 upholds its vision to present the sheer variety of experiences from South Asia that inspire literary fiction. ”

Instituted by DSC Limited in 2010, the DSC Prize is awarded annually for the best work of fiction inspired by the South Asian region, people, culture and diaspora; published in English, including translations into English. The Prize is unique in not relying on author ethnicity as an eligibility criterion and is open to authors across the globe writing on the region.

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is guided by an international Advisory Committee comprising Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Alastair Niven, Fakrul Alam, Ira Pande, Marie Brenner, William Dalrymple, David Godwin, Michael Worton and Surina Narula.

For media queries please contact: MSL India

Vidushi Khera E: vidushi.khera@mslgroup.com M: +91 98104 98106
Rashi Mehrotra E: rashi.mehrotra@mslgroup.com M: +91 9958594111
Puja Kumari E: puja.kumari@mslgroup.com M: +91 96502 13232

Notes to the Editor

About The Winner of the 2013 DSC Prize For South Asian Literature

Jeet Thayil: Narcopolis (Faber and Faber, London)

Shuklaji Street, in Old Bombay. In Rashid’s opium room the air is thick and potent. Here, people say that you introduce only your worst enemy to opium. Narcopolis is a rich, chaotic, hallucinatory dream of a novel that captures the Bombay of the 1970s in all its compelling squalor. With a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs, it is a journey into a sprawling underworld written in electric and utterly original prose.

Jeet Thayil was born in Kerala, India in 1959 and educated in Hong Kong, New York and Bombay. He is a performance poet, songwriter and guitarist, and has published four collections of poetry. He is the editor of The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008). He currently lives in New Delhi.

About DSC Limited’s Literary Initiatives

In its efforts to contribute to social growth and create social infrawealth, DSC Limited has identified the promotion of literature as a key initiative. The company firmly believes that promoting literature helps build the character of society, just as its infrastructure projects help create the infrawealth of the nation.  

As a major move towards promoting literature, the company has been supporting the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival for the last five years. During this period, this event has grown to become the largest literary event of its kind in the region. As part of its vision of promoting South Asian literature, the most significant development has been the institution of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2010. This unique prize, which carries an award of US $50,000, is a celebration of the rich and varied world of literature belonging to the South Asian region.

DSC Limited has also been the principal sponsor of the 2010 and 2011 editions of DSC South Asian Literature Festival in the UK.

The post Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis wins the DSC Prize 2013 appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Entry forms for 2014 Prize available from 1st May, 2013

The post Winner 2013 appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

The post Shortlist Announcement Coverage for the DSC Prize 2013 appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

The leading international prize for South Asian literature announces its six shortlisted authors: two Pakistani, one Bangladeshi, and three Indian writers – alongside an American translator – are in the running, representing one of the most rapidly expanding book markets in the world

At a gathering of leading publishers, writers and cultural leaders at London’s May Fair Hotel on the evening of Tuesday 20th November 2012, the shortlist for the third DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013 was announced. The prize carries an award of INR 2,800,000/GBP £32,000/USD $50,000 given to one international author (or shared with their translator) who has written the best novel thematically linked to the South Asian region. The final prize will be announced during the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in India in January 2013, and has grown to be a fixture in the international publishing calendar, due to the significance of South Asia’s rapidly expanding book market.

The jury, chaired by Nobel Prize-nominated writer and academic K. Satchidanandan (former Chief-Executive of India’s National Academy of Letters), undertook intense deliberation of a longlist consisting of 16 books. The jury featured a number of leading literary figures: writer and critic, Muneeza Shamsie (Managing Editor of The Oxford Companion to the Literatures of Pakistan), Rick Simonson (Senior Buyer, Founder, and Co-Director of Elliott Bay’s internationally-renowned author reading programme), Suvani Singh (Festival Director of Kathmandu Literary Jatra), and arts entrepreneur, Eleanor O’Keeffe (former Director of the Jaipur Literary Festival; Co-Founder of the Palestinian Festival of Literature, and cultural organisation, 5×15).

SHORTLISTED ENTRIES FOR THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE 2013

1.       Jamil Ahmad: The Wandering Falcon (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

2.       Tahmima Anam: The Good Muslim (Penguin Books)

3.       Amitav Ghosh: River of Smoke (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

4.       Mohammed Hanif: Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (Random House India)

5.       Uday Prakash: The Walls of Delhi (Translated by Jason Grunebaum; UWA Publishing, W. Australia)

6.       Jeet Thayil: Narcopolis (Faber and Faber, London)

COMMENT FROM THE JURY

K Satchidanandan, Chair of the Jury comments “The six shortlisted books from different countries represent the diversity of South Asian fiction in terms of theme as well as idiom. We were looking for works which are thematically fresh, stylistically innovative and are a definitive contribution to novel as a genre. The choice was not easy as we had sixteen outstanding works to choose from but we were unanimous in our final choice.”

There were 81 entries for the prize this year, from authors and translators across India, Australia, UK, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, reflecting the importance of South Asia’s rapidly expanding book market. India is currently the world’s third largest English-language book market currently (after the USA and UK), and is set to become the largest within the next ten years (according to a BBC Report, May 2012).

Long-listed authors, publishers (including Hamish Hamilton, Harvill Secker, Penguin, Picador, Headline Review, HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Faber and Faber and Zubaan), London’s literati, and ambassadors from the South Asian region gathered together for the gala event at the May Fair Hotel, London, to announce the Shortlist for the 3^rd annual DSC Literature Prize.

The winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013 will be announced at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, Diggi Palace Hotel, on 25th January 2013.

COMMENT FROM DSC PRIZE STEERING COMMITTEE

“The jury had a challenging task in narrowing down the longlist of sixteen to arrive at the shortlist of the most deserving six books. It’s an excellent and well balanced shortlist and without doubt represents the finest writing pertaining to the South Asian region. I extend my best wishes to each one of the shortlisted authors and keenly look forward to the announcement of the final winner of the DSC Prize 2013 which will be made at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013”

Manhad Narula, Member Steering Committee, DSC Prize

THE DSC PRIZE 2013

The DSC Prize is guided by an international Advisory Committee comprising Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Alastair Niven, Fakrul Alam, Ira Pande, Marie Brenner, William Dalrymple, David Godwin, Michael Worton and Surina Narula.

The prize is a first-of-its-kind initiative, awarded for the best work of fiction based on South Asia, published in English, including translations into English, and not dependent on authors’ ethnicity.

ABOUT THE LITERARY INITIATIVES OF DSC LIMITED

In its efforts to contribute to social growth and create social infrawealth, DSC Limited has identified the promotion of literature as a key initiative. The company firmly believes that promoting literature helps build the character of society, just as its infrastructure projects help create the infrawealth of the nation.

As a major move towards promoting literature, the company has been supporting the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival for the last six years. During this period, this event has grown to become the largest literary event of its kind in the region. As part of its vision of promoting South Asian literature, the most significant development has been the institution of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2010. This unique prize, which carries an award of US $50,000, is a celebration of the rich and varied world of literature belonging to the South Asian region.

DSC Limited has also been the principal sponsor of the DSC South Asian Literature Festival in the UK. With growing interest and a robust following of South Asian writing in the UK, this event is a critical platform in extending the company’s patronage of literature to a global audience.

LAST YEAR’S WINNER OF THE DSC PRIZE

In January 2012, the DSC Prize was awarded to Singapore based Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka for his book Chinaman (Random House, India), a novel that explores cricket as a metaphor to uncover a lost life and a lost history. Chinaman skillfully uses sport and the notion of fair play to look at Sri Lanka in a fresh and exciting way, while conscious of its integral colonial past.

Please visit www.dscprize.com for more details.

For all media enquiries, to request interviews with DSC Prize judges, authors, and for further information

Please contact:

Benjamin Webb or Georgina Hill at Deliberate PR

benjamin@deliberate-pr.com / DL – 020 7221 1540 / M – 07930 408 224

georgina@deliberate-pr.com / DL – 020 7243 2746 / M – 07891 870 816

The post Announcement of the Shortlist for the DSC Prize 2013 appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Jamil Ahmad: TheWandering Falcon (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of nowhere to escape the cruel punishments meted upon those who transgress the boundaries of marriage and family. Their son, Tor Baz, descended from both chiefs and outlaws, becomes “The Wandering Falcon,” a character who travels throughout the tribes, over the mountains and the plains, in the towns and tents that comprise the homes of the tribal people.

Jamil Ahmad was born in Jalandhar in 1933. He has been a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan, a Political Agent, commissioner in Dera Ismail Khan and in Swat, and chairman of the Tribal Development Corporation. He was also posted as a minister in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul, before and during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. He now lives in Islamabad. This is his first novel.

Tahmima Anam: The Good Muslim (Penguin Books)

A remarkable novel about one family who, having fought in Bangladesh’s brutal war of independence, must now face the challenges of peace. In the dying days of a brutal civil war, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside, he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come . . . Almost a decade later, Sohail’s sister Maya returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. Set in Bangladesh at a time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise, The Good Muslim is an epic story about faith, family and the long shadow of war.

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1975. She was raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok. After studying at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, she earned a PhD in Social Anthropology. Her first novel, A Golden Age, was translated into 22 languages and was recognized by several prizes. She currently lives in London

Amitav Ghosh: River of Smoke (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared – two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford, has taught at a number of institutions and written for many magazines. He currently divides his time between Calcutta, Goa and Brooklyn.

Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (Random House India)

The patients of the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments are looking for a miracle, and Alice Bhatti is looking for a job. Alice is a candidate for the position of junior nurse, grade 4. With guidance from the working nurse’s manual, and some tricks she picked up in prison, Alice brings succour to the thousands of patients littering the hospital’s corridors and concrete courtyard. In the process she attracts the attention of a lovesick patient, Teddy Bunt, apprentice to the nefarious ‘Gentleman Squad’ of the Karachi police. They fall in love; Teddy with sudden violence, Alice with cautious optimism.Their love is unexpected, but the consequences are not.

Mohammed Hanif is a Pakistani writer and journalist. He was born at Okara. He was graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot officer but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. He initially worked for Newsline, The Washington Post and India Today. In 1996, he moved to London to work for the BBC. Later, he became the head of the BBC’s Urdu service in London. He moved back to Pakistan in 2008.

Uday Prakash: The Walls of Delhi (Translated by Jason Grunebaum; UWA Publishing, W. Australia)

In ‘The Walls of Delhi’, a sweeper discovers a cache of black money and escapes to see the Taj Mahal with his underage mistress; in ‘Mohandas’, a dalit races to reclaim his life stolen by an upper-caste identity thief; and finally, in ‘Mangosil’, a slum baby’s head gets bigger and bigger as he gets smarter and smarter, while his family tries to find a cure.

Uday Prakash is one of contemporary Hindi’s most important voices. He has published several volumes of poetry and fiction, published over the past twenty-five years. Uday is also a freelance writer and journalist, a filmmaker of documentaries, feature films and television series, and a playwright. He divides his time between New Delhi and Sitapur in Madhya Pradesh.

Jason Grunebaum has worked as an interpreter and delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kashmir, Kosovo, and East Timor. His short stories and translations have appeared in many journals. He is also a senior lecturer in Hindi at the University of Chicago, where he teaches creative writing.

Jeet Thayil: Narcopolis ( Faber and Faber, London)

Shuklaji Street, in Old Bombay. In Rashid’s opium room the air is thick and potent. Here, people say that you introduce only your worst enemy to opium. Narcopolis is a rich, chaotic, hallucinatory dream of a novel that captures the Bombay of the 1970s in all its compelling squalor. With a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs, it is a journey into a sprawling underworld written in electric and utterly original prose.

Jeet Thayil was born in Kerala, India in 1959 and educated in Hong Kong, New York and Bombay. He is a performance poet, songwriter and guitarist, and has published four collections of poetry. He is the editor of The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008). He currently lives in New Delhi.

The post DSC Prize 2013 Shortlist appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

The post DSC Prize Shortlist Announcement appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

The post Longlist Announcement Coverage for the DSC Prize 2013 appeared first on The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.