DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017: 7 Indians in Longlist

It also comprises three Pakistani writers, two Sri Lankan writers and one American writer based in India.

Seven Indian writers have made it to the longlist of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017. The longlist of 13 authors was announced today in Delhi by eminent feminist writer and publisher Ritu Menon, who’s also chair of the jury.

The longlist comprises seven Indian writers, three Pakistani writers, two Sri Lankan writers and one American writer based in India. Included in the running are three debut novels, along with two translated entries, the original writing being in Tamil and Malayalam.

Take a look at the longlist here:

• Anjali Joseph: The Living (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, UK)
• Anosh Irani: The Parcel (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India)
• Anuk Arudpragasam: The Story of a Brief Marriage (Granta Books, UK)
• Aravind Adiga: Selection Day (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India)
• Ashok Ferrey: The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons (Penguin Books, Penguin Random House, India)
• Hirsh Sawhney: South Haven (Akashic Books, USA)
• Karan Mahajan: The Association of Small Bombs (Chatto & Windus, UK)
• K.R. Meera: The Poison of Love (Translated by Ministhy S, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India)
• Omar Shahid Hamid: The Party Worker (Pan Macmillan, India)
• Perumal Murugan: Pyre (Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India)
• Sarvat Hasin: This Wide Night (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India)
• Shahbano Bilgrami: Those Children (HarperCollins, India)
• Stephen Alter: In the Jungles of the Night (Aleph Book Company, India)

It gives me enormous pleasure to announce this longlist of 13 wonderful novels for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017. Speaking for myself it was also a great pleasure to read this year’s submissions, remarkable for their range, energy and generational sweep. As a jury, we were struck by several exceptional qualities in the novels selected: their inventiveness and creativity, both of subject matter and in literary treatment. We admired the maturity and humanity of the perspective they brought to bear on their characters, and the delicacy of their observations on difficult or troubled situations. We were beguiled by their wit and humour, as well as impressed by the versatility of their skill when dealing with history. And we were reminded that, although the writers’ preoccupations may be universal and their sensibility cosmopolitan, their voices are distinctly South Asian.

Ritu Menon, Chair of the jury

This year the DSC Prize received more than 60 eligible entries that were sieved by a five-member international jury panel. The shortlist of five or six books for the DSC Prize 2017 will be announced on 27th September at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) in London. The final winner, who would be awarded US $25,000, would be announced at a special Award Ceremony at the Dhaka Literary Festival on November 18th, 2017.

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