Longlist Announced For The Dsc Prize For South Asian Literature 2017

The much anticipated longlist for the US $25,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017 was announced today by eminent feminist writer and publisher Ritu Menon, who is the chair of the jury panel for the distinguished prize. The longlist of 13 novels was unveiled at the Oxford Bookstore in New Delhi. It includes 7 Indian writers, 3 Pakistani writers, 2 Sri Lankan writers and 1 American writer based in India. Apart from authors based in the South Asian region there are  authors in the list who are based outside the region and who have explored South Asian life and culture from an outside perspective. The five member international jury panel went through 60 eligible entries diligently to arrive at this year's longlist of 13 novels which they feel represent the best works of fiction related to the South Asian region.

The longlisted entries that will contend for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017 are: Anjali Joseph's The Living, Anosh Irani's The Parcel, Anuk Arudpragasam's The Story of a Brief Marriage, Aravind Adiga's Selection Day, Ashok Ferrey's The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons, Hirsh Sawhney's South Haven, Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs, K.R. Meera's The Poison of Love, Omar Shahid Hamid's The Party Worker, Perumal Murugan's Pyre (Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Hamish Hamilton), Sarvat Hasin's This Wide Night, Shahbano Bilgrami's Those Children, and Stephen Alter's In the Jungles of the Night.

The jury will now deliberate on the longlist over the next month and the shortlist of 5 or 6 books for the DSC Prize 2017 will be announced on 27th September, 2017 at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) in London. Thereafter the jury will meet once again to arrive at the final winner that is to be announced at a special Award Ceremony at the Dhaka Literary Festival on November 18th, 2017. 

The 5 member international jury panel of this year's DSC Literature Prize include  beside Ritu Menon, Valentine Cunningham, Professor Emeritus of English language and Literature at Oxford University, UK who has authored several books on Victorian fiction and poetry, Steven Bernstein, the celebrated screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer and lecturer based out of Los Angeles, USA, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, respected journalist, pundit, radio and television broadcaster, based in London who has written extensively on society, culture and feminism, and Senath Walter Perera, Senior Professor in English, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka who has authored several publications on the diasporic and postcolonial literature of the region.

Now in its 7th year, the DSC Prize has been successful in bringing South Asian writing to a larger global audience through rewarding and showcasing the achievements of the authors writing about this region. Past winners of the DSC Prize have been H M Naqvi of Pakistan, Shehan Karunatilaka of Sri Lanka, Jeet Thayil and Cyrus Mistry from India, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Anuradha Roy, from India who won the prize last year.