Kamila Shamsie and Jayant Kaikini on the shortlist of the 2018 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
Six books are in the running for the $25,000 literary prize, which will declare the winning title in January.
The DSC Prize for Literature announced its shortlist of six titles for 2018 in London on Thursday.
Currently in its eighth year, the $25,000 literary prize was established in 2010 and is open to authors of any nationality as long as the writing is about South Asia and its people. This year’s shortlist comprises five novels, by writers Kamila Shamsie, Manu Joseph, Mohsin Hamid, Sujit Saraf and Neel Mukherjee, and a translated collection of short stories by Jayant Kaikini.
The shortlist was announced at the London School of Economics and Political Science by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, chair of this year’s jury. “Evaluating these books reminded me once again of the importance of reading in human lives,” Mukherjee said at the occasion.
The six titles on the shortlist are by four authors of Indian origin and two of Pakistani origin. The longlist of 16 books was announced in October. The winner will be declared in January, 2019 at the Kolkata Literary Meet.
The six books in the running for this year’s prize are:
- No Presents Please, Jayant Kaikini, translated by Tejaswini Niranjana (Harper Perennial, HarperCollins India)
- Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie (Riverhead Books, USA and Bloomsbury, UK)
- Miss Laila Armed And Dangerous, Manu Joseph (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India)
- Exit West, Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead Books, USA and Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India)
- A State Of Freedom, Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, USA and Hamish Hamilton, PenguinRandom House, India)
- Harilal & Sons, Sujit Saraf (Speaking Tiger, India)
