DSC Prize 2018 shortlist announced: Four Indian-Origin Authors Shortlisted

The most anticipated shortlist was announced on 14^th November 2018 for the US $25,000 DSC prize for South Asian literature 2018. The list of shortlisted literature fiction was unveiled at the special event which was held at the London School of Economics and political science. Now this event is going to be in its 8^th year, which mainly focuses on the South Asian fiction writing. DSC prize is considered one of the most esteemed and significant international literary awards for South Asian literature.

DSC Prize 2018 shortlist announced: Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie make it to the list

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chair of DSC Prize 2018, is one of the Jury members from the panel announced the name of 6 shortlisted novels. Along with Rudrangshu Mukherjee, the DSC Prize 2018 Jury panel also includes 4 other Jury members such as Claire Armitstead, Nandana Sen, Firdous Azim and Tissa Jayatilaka, who met a day earlier at the event before the announcement of the shortlisted novels. The shortlisted names for DSC price 2018 comprises of 4 authors of Indian Origin and 2 authors of Pakistani Origin.

Commenting on the shortlisted names, co-founder of the DSC Prize, Surina Narula, said, “My heartfelt thanks and commendations to the jury panel for the detailed deliberations over the last few months, and coming up with such a good shortlist. The long list announced last month was an impressive list; it must have been a challenging task for the jury to bring this down to a shortlist of 6 books. The shortlist represents the very best of South Asian fiction writing, and the depth, creativity and unique narrative of each of these novels is indeed both impressive and inspirational. My congratulations to each one of the shortlisted authors and translator and I wish them the very best for the final award ceremony.”

Even though from the shortlisted names, some of them are being established outside the South Asian region, their work affectingly brings flourishing wide-ranging variety of themes and emotions that are so appropriate in existing South Asian life. The shortlist names also comprise of translated version of the book where the original writing was in Kannada. The announcement of the shortlisted names for DSC Prize 2018 was well received by publishers, authors and literary supporters who attended the event.

The six shortlisted names of novels for DSC Prize 2018 along with their writers include:

• No Presents Please by Jayant Kaikini  (Translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, Harper Perennial, HarperCollins India),
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Riverhead Books, USA and Bloomsbury, UK),
• Miss Laila Armed And Dangerous by Manu Joseph  (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India),
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid  (Riverhead Books, USA and Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India),
• A State Of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee  (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, UK and Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India), and
• Harilal & Sons by Sujit Saraf (Speaking Tiger, India).

Jury Chair, Rudrangshu Mukherjee said on the event “Being the chair of the jury of the DSC Prize has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. I say this for two reasons. One is the sheer intellectual excitement of reading, evaluating and discussing these works of fiction. The other is the interactions I had with my four colleagues on the jury. I know I learnt an enormous amount from all of them and for this I am profoundly grateful to all of them. Evaluating these books reminded me once again of the importance of reading in human lives.”

From the following announced list of the nominated entries, the jury will assemble again in order to select the winning author. The final award ceremony is going to be held between Jan 22 and 27^th January 2019 at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in Kolkata, India.