Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Alastair Niven among new members on the Advisory Committee of DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

Call for Entries invited for 2013 edition

Highlights:

• Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Alastair Niven, Fakrul Alam, Ira Pande and Marie Brenner join the eminent international Advisory Committee of the DSC Prize for the 2013 and 2014 editions.
• DSC Prize 2013 invites entries from Publishers across the globe for works of literary fiction on South Asia, published between Jan 2011 and April 2012 in English, including translations into English

 New Delhi, April 20, 2012: The US $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced the appointment of new members on its Advisory Committee for the 2013 and 2014 editions of the prize. Noted Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra; academician and 1994 Booker Prize Jury member Dr. Alastair Niven; author, academician and South Asian  literary expert Dr. Fakrul Alam; acclaimed translator, editor and author Ira Pande; and American author and journalist Marie Brenner are among the new members of the Advisory Committee.

The new members join existing eminent personalities on the Committee – William Dalrymple, David Godwin, Michael Worton and Surina Narula who have helped establish the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature as a major landmark. The Advisory Committee, which encompasses experts from diverse backgrounds, counsels the DSC Prize regarding initiatives that help realize its vision of promoting South Asian Writing on a global platform. The Committee will help create avenues for promotion of English literature from the subcontinent, regional literature and translations, as well as international writings on South Asia. The Advisory Committee will also recommend the appointment of the prize Jury which is expected to be announced in May 2012.

Commenting on the development, Manhad Narula – Spokesperson for the DSC Prize, said “We are extremely honoured to have such eminent and acclaimed members on our Advisory Committee this year. The DSC Prize has received heart-warming support from the literary fraternity who have supported and joined us in our aim to promote South Asian literature on a global platform.”

The DSC Prize also invited entries from publishers for the 2013 edition of this unique award which is open to authors across the globe writing on or about South Asia – its   people, culture and diaspora. The Call for Entries will remain open till June 15, 2012, for works of literary fiction based on South Asia, published between 1^st Jan 2011 and 30^th April 2012 in English, including translations into English.  The Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2013 will be announced in January 2013 at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival

Detailed eligibility criterion and submission guidelines can be found at www.dscprize.com

In its two years of existence, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature has made a significant mark in the literary space, striding confidently towards its vision of taking South Asian writing to a global platform. In its inaugural year, the DSC Prize 2011 was won by HM Naqvi for his novel Home Boy (HarperCollins India) which has attained resounding success. Having won the DSC Prize, Home Boy was published in the British Commonwealth by Hamish Hamilton in October 2011. The second winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature was Shehan Karunatilaka who won the prize in January 2012 for his debut novel Chinaman (Random House India / Jonathan Cape, UK). His book is now being published by Graywolf Press in the USA and is expected to release in May, 2012.

Please visit www.dscprize.com for more details.

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 is also 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.

For further information, please contact:

Hanmer MSL

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra  is the author of four books of poetry, the editor of The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (Oxford University Press), Collected Poems in English by Arun Kolatkar (Bloodaxe), and An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English (Permanent Black), and the translator of The Absent Traveller: Prakrit Love Poetry (Penguin Classics) and Songs of Kabir (NYRB Classics/Hachette-Black Kite). A volume of his essays, Partial Recall: Essays on Literature and Literary History is published by Permanent Black in 2012. He lives in Allahabad and Dehra Dun.

Shehan Karunatilaka awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012

 Sri Lankan debut novelist wins prestigious US $50,000 prize for his book Chinaman  

 Jaipur, January 21^st 2012: The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012 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 skilfully uses sport and the notion of fair play to look at Sri Lanka in a fresh and exciting way.

The US $50,000 DSC Prize 2012 was awarded to Shehan Karunatilaka at a memorable ceremony attended by eminent literary figures, renowned authors, members of the media fraternity and a diverse literary audience. The event took place at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the biggest literary festivals in the region. The DSC Prize along with a unique trophy was awarded to Shehan Karunatilaka by Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Queen Mother of Bhutan.

A total of six authors were part of the Shortlist for the DSC Prize 2012 from which the winner was announced. The other shortlisted authors were U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura (Oxford University Press, India, Translated by Susheela Punitha), Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry), Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/Penguin India), Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins-India), and Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/Penguin India)

The DSC Prize was judged by a distinguished Jury chaired by Ira Pande along with Dr. Alastair Niven, Dr. Fakrul Alam , Faiza S Khan and Marie Brenner. The Shortlist was announced in October 2011 at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival in UK.

Commenting on the occasion Ira Pande, Jury chairperson said “The jury unanimously chose this year’s winner. While this fact in itself is a historic one for book juries are notorious for spirited battles over lists and winners, let me add that this year’s winner is also important for several other reasons. The winning title is a brilliant narration of all that is both great and sad about South Asia and in that sense it brings a world to the reader that needs to be seen outside this region. No longer are novelists who write of violence, breakdown of communities and the old way of life able to speak the whole truth about our world.”

Speaking further about the winning book, she said, “The speech rhythms of smaller towns and indigent characters, so seldom seen and heard, are brought alive by a writer who handles character and speech with consummate ease. That world has long needed a suitable metaphor and he has discovered it: Cricket. Set in Sri Lanka, as an epic search for a lost player, Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilake is both a portrait of a lost way of life and a glimpse into the future this vast and vivid region is fated to occupy.”

Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut novel Chinaman (Random House, India) was awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012, recognizing it as the best work of fiction pertaining to the South Asian region, published in the last year in English, including translations into English.

Manhad Narula, Director DSC Limited and Founder of the DSC Prize, commented on the occasion saying, “Congratulations to Shehan Karunatilaka for a book that represents the best South Asian writing and winning the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012. I thank the jury members who’ve had the difficult task of choosing a winner among several exceptional works submitted this year. Now in its second year running, the DSC Prize has built a strong and engaging platform for the recognition of South Asian writing. We are committed to showcasing the best writing in the region and bringing it to a larger global audience”

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature was instituted in January 2010 to celebrate writing that highlights the South Asian region, its people, culture and diaspora. The DSC Prize, which has been envisioned as a unique and prestigious award, recognizes the literary works of authors across the globe writing on South Asia, transcending the origin or ethnicity of the author. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is one-of-its-kind in the region and aims at recognizing literary work that is redefining the understanding of South Asia across the globe. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 was awarded to HM Naqvi for his debut novel Home Boy (HarperCollins India). The DSC Prize is guided by an international Advisory Committee of eminent literary personalities comprising MJ Akbar, Urvashi Butalia, Tina Brown, William Dalrymple, Lord Meghnad Desai, David Godwin, Surina Narula, Senath Walter Perera, Nayantara Sehgal and Michael Worton.

Note to the Editor: DSC Limited Literary Initiatives

In its endeavour to contribute to social growth and create social infra wealth, 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 infra wealth of the nation. As a major move towards promoting literature, the company has been the principal sponsor of 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 an extension of its vision to promote South Asian literature, DSC Limited recently instituted the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, with a prize money of US $ 50,000. This unique prize is a celebration of the rich and varied world of literature belonging to the South Asian region.

In order to further strengthen its association with South Asian literature, DSC Limited  recently presented the DSC South Asian Literature Festival which  was held  in London in October 2011 . With growing interest and a robust following of South Asian writing in the UK, this event was a critical step in extending the company’s patronage of literature to a global platform.

For further information, please contact: Hanmer MS&L

Vidushi Khera
Cell: +91 98104 98106
vidushi.khera@hanmermsl.com

Rashi Mehrotra
Cell: +91 995894111
rashi.mehrotra@hanmermsl.com

Ashima Chetan
Cell: +91 8800889965
ashima.chetan@hanmermsl.com

Web Coverage:

• Independent UK
• Guardian UK
• The National, UAE
• Sunday Times, Sri Lanka
• Bookseller.com
• BookTrade

After intense deliberation over the longlist comprising 16 books, the eminent Jury, chaired by Ira Pande along with renowned literary figures Dr. Alastair Niven, Dr. Fakrul Alam, Faiza S. Khan, and Marie Brenner, selected the shortlist for this major international award. The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature has a prize value of $50,000 for the best writing about the South Asian region.

The shortlist of 6 books for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, 2012 is as follows:

•    U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura (Oxford University Press, India, Translated by Susheela Punitha)
•   Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry)
•   Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/Penguin India)
• Shehan Karunatilaka: Chinaman (Random House, India)
•   Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins-India)
•   Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/Penguin India)

Speaking on the occasion, Chairperson of the Jury, Ira Pande said, “The task before the jury was not easy; the main hurdle was how to sift the clever and stylish from the real and true tale. All of us were united in feeling that a novel by any definition must have a strong tale to tell. While there will always be legitimate differences between jury members on individual choices, I think we were fortunate this year in arriving at a broad consensus on what we were looking for. I have a twinge of regret, as doubtless other jury members do too, that we could not include some of the terrific novels we had before us but that has been a cross that every jury has had to carry.

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is an agency of acquainting readers to the rich diversity of South Asia’s myriad language traditions. This is just the second year since this Prize was instituted and I am sure that in the coming years, it will bring forward a world whose time to take centre-stage has arrived.”

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is a first-of-its-kind initiative as it is specifically focused on the richness and diversity of South Asian writing. The prize is also unique since it is not ethnicity driven in terms of the author’s origin and is open to any author belonging to any part of the globe as long as the work is based on the South Asian region and its people.

In January 2011, the inaugural DSC Prize was won by Pakistani author HM Naqvi for his debut novel Home Boy (HarperCollins India) which has gone on to become one of the most celebrated recent renditions on South Asia. Following the announcement, Home Boy was acquired by Hamish Hamilton [Penguin Books] in the UK. It is now being published by Penguin in the UK and British Commonwealth, realizing one of the central visions of the prize, which is to propagate and present South Asian writing to a larger global audience.

The DSC Prize initiative has been guided by an international Advisory Committee comprising MJ Akbar, Urvashi Butalia, Tina Brown, William Dalrymple, Lord Meghnad Desai, David Godwin, Surina Narula, Senath Walter Perera, Nayantara Sehgal and Michael Worton.

Thanking the Jury, Mr Manhad Narula, Director, DSC Limited said, “The jury had a challenging task in narrowing down the longlist to the shortlist of the most deserving six. These represent the finest works of fiction pertaining to the South Asian region and I extend my best wishes to each one of the shortlisted authors. I now look forward with excitement to the jury announcing the final winner of the DSC Prize at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012″

The winner of the second DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will be announced at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival on 21^st January 2012. The prize will be awarded for the best work of fiction pertaining to the South Asian region, published in English, including translations into English.

Please visit www.dscprize.com for more details.

The DSC South Asian Literature Festival 2011 took place in London from 7-24th October. Please visit www.dscsouthasianlitfest.com for details.

Notes to Editors: DSC Limited Literary Initiatives

In its endeavour 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 the principal sponsor of 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 an extension of its innate vision to promote South Asian Literature, DSC Limited instituted the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, with a prize money of USD 50,000. This unique prize is a celebration of the rich and varied world of literature belonging to the South Asian region.

In order to further strengthen its association with South Asian Literature, DSC Limited is also presenting the DSC South Asian Literature Festival held in London for the second year this October. With growing interest and a robust following of South Asian writing in the UK, this event is a critical step in extending the company’s patronage of literature to a global platform.

Perhaps the most significant work in caste literature since Premchand’s Godan (1936), Bharathipura reveals U.R. Ananthamurthy’s preoccupation with moving beyond caste and class interests. First published in 1973, Bharathipura is about the practice of untouchability in a traditional society that is evolving into modernity through new economic forces brought in by a certain class of people. When the town’s wealthiest landlord returns home, multiple realities unfold. Violent and unexpected events follow Jagannatha’s attempts to revolutionize everyone and everything by linking his own transformation to the changes he wishes to orchestrate. 

U.R. Ananthamurthy, a teacher of English literature and one of India’s leading contemporary writers, does all his creative writing in Kannada. A Jnanpith awardee and author of five novels, including the widely acclaimed Samskara (English translation, OUP 1976), he has six collections of short stories, five collections of poems, a play, and sixteen volumes of critical writings. He was Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi University (Kerala) and President, Central Sahitya Akademi.

Susheela Punitha has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in English language and literature. Her publications include children’s fiction for UNICEF and course books in spoken English.

Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry)

Srinagar, capital city of the famed ‘paradise on earth’, Kashmir. Ailan Gali, a deep, dark narrow lane that lies at its heart, where houses stand on a finger’s width of space and lean crookedly against each other, so deep, so narrow, so closely connected that even thieves do not dare enter. Yet people live and love here, they cling on to their old ways, they share stories and food, joys and sorrows, sufficient unto themselves. But the outside world beckons, youngsters begin to leave, and slowly change makes its way into Ailan Gali only to find its hitherto hidden mirror-image – the change that has insidiously been working its way into the lives of those who are the gali’s permanent residents. This funny, poignant, evocative story of a Kashmir as yet untouched by violence – but with its shadows looming at the edges – is a classic of Hindi literature, available in English translation for the first time.

Chandrakanta Studied in Srinagar and Rajasthan and published her first story in 1967 in Kalpana. She has since written and published many novels and short story collections as well as a volume of poetry.

Manisha Chaudhry has translated stories, novels and documents for a range of publishing houses and organisations, from both Hindi and English. She is currently Head, Content Development with Pratham Books.

 Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/Penguin India)

3 January 2000. It is the start of the new millennium. On Ammanagudi Street in Bangalore, a strange creature is spotted. As the beast seizes the imagination of the city, the first people to sight it—Shrinivas Moorty, a teacher in a local college, Pushpa Rani, who works in a call centre, Neela Mary Gopalrao, secretary to an influential man, and Sukhiya Ram, her office boy—are invited to talk about it on Bali Brums’s hugely popular radio show. What was it that they saw? A bat? A malevolent avatar? A sign of the displeasure of the gods? The grotesque mascot of a city that is growing too fast and crumbling too soon? Or merely a monkey that has lost its way?

Usha K.R. is the author of the novels Sojourn, The Chosen and A Girl and a River was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, 2008, and won the Vodafone Crossword Award, 2007.

Shehan Karunatilaka: Chinaman (Random House, India)

Why am I chasing a man who only played four test matches for Sri Lanka? A man who denied me interviews, delighted me on occasion, disappointed those he played with, and disappeared three years ago.’ Retired sportswriter, W.G. Karunasena is dying. He will spend his final months drinking arrack, upsetting his wife, ignoring his son and tracking down Pradeep S. Mathew, an elusive spin bowler he considers ‘the greatest cricketer to walk the earth’. On his quest to find this unsung genius, W.G. uncovers a coach with six fingers, a secret bunker below a famous stadium, an LTTE warlord, and startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself.  Ambitious, playful and strikingly original, Chinaman is a novel about cricket and Sri Lanka – and of Sri Lanka through his cricket.

Shehan Karunatilaka has written advertisements, rock songs, travel stories and basslines. Chinaman is his first novel.

Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins-India)
Amir Ali leaves his village in Bihar to travel to London with an English captain, William Meadows, to whom he narrates the story of his life – the story of a murderous thug. While Meadows tries to analyse the strange cult of the Indian Thug, a group of Englishmen sets out to prove the inherent difference between races by examining their skulls – with bizarre consequences. Set in Victorian London, this story of different voices from different places draws intricate lines of connection from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, between England and India, across individual and cultural differences. 

Tabish Khair is an acclaimed poet and novelist whose recent novels have been shortlisted for the Encore Award (UK) and the Crossword Prize (India). Translated into various languages, his works include Where Parallel Lines Meet, Babu Fictions: Alienation in Indian English Novels, The Bus Stopped, Filming: A Love Story, The Glum Peacock and The Gothic Postcolonialism and Otherness: Ghosts from Elsewhere.

Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/Penguin India)

Simon Jesukumar, an ageing widower, aspires to do something worthwhile with what remains of his circumscribed, frustratingly blameless, cocooned middle-class life. His aspirations are stirred by his nagging guilt about the slum next door—incongruously and deludedly named ‘Sitara’. The well off residents of his colony use the inhabitants of Sitara for menial jobs but ignore their real needs. Simon’s friendship with his errand boy Velu, and the strangely gifted Thatkan, propels him towards others from the slum—Swamy, the schoolteacher who is also the butcher; ‘Doctor’ Prince who has no medical degree; the belt-buckle factory owner who employs children to melt brass for buckles; Tailorboy, who has thirteen fingertips to please women; the bizarre and inscrutable Baqua; and Nayagan the Leader, optimistically called ‘Merciful Diamond’, whose party bosses consider Sitara to be nothing more than a captive vote bank. As the story plunges into the heart of the slum—bringing the most unlikely individuals to the brink of collision—Simon begins to understand that good intentions and small acts of kindness achieve little when faced with the problems of a stratum of humanity he knows next to nothing about. Simon’s dilemma is ours: how can, and how should the rich (and the not-so-rich) help the poor?

Kavery Nambisan graduated from St John s Medical College, Bangalore, and did her surgical training and FRCS in England; since then she has devoted a large part of her working life to practice in rural India. She is the author of several novels including The Scent of Pepper and Hills of Angheri. She lives in Lonavla with her husband Vijay Nambisan.