Keki N Daruwalla to chair DSC Prize for S Asian Literature

Noted poet and writer Keki N Daruwalla is set to chair an international jury for the 2015 DSC Prize, valued at USD 50,000 and which celebrates the best in South Asian Literature.
The five-member jury also comprises John Freeman, American literary critic and former editor of Granta, Maithree Wickramasinghe, an English professor from Sri Lanka who is an expert on gender.
Michael Worton, who has written extensively on modern literature and art and Razi Ahmed from Pakistan who is founding director of the annual, not-for-profit Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) are the other jury members.
"The 5 member jury panel would be fully empowered and solely responsible to adjudicate on the entries and arrive at the longlist, the shortlist and the eventual winner of the DSC Prize which is now in its fifth year," organisers said in a statement today.

The jury panel is currently in the process of judging more than 75 entries received this year from publishers across the world.
"Of special significance this year has been the increasing number of entries coming in from publishers from UK, USA, Canada and Australia to supplement the entries from publishers in the South Asian countries, and the strong representation of translated works," organisers said.

A longlist is scheduled to be announced here on October 20 followed by the announcement of a shortlist of five to six titles in London on November 27.
The winner of the DSC Prize would be announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival in Jaipur on January 22 next year, organisers said.

"This is a prestigious prize, remarkable for the fact that it is confined to fiction on South Asia, this land mass teeming with languages, faiths and people," Daruwalla said.
"South Asia with its crowds, their emotions spilling over spit-slick streets, and its roller coaster histories dotted with a coup and an insurgency here or an assassination there, is a seed-bed for good fiction. The best part of the DSC Prize is that translations also get a look-in," he said.
Commenting on the announcement, Manhad Narula of DSC Ltd, said, "We are delighted to have such a highly acclaimed international jury panel. They bring in a rich and varied understanding of South Asian writing.. The number of entries for the Prize and the spread of authors writing about this region has grown over the years."

The DSC Prize has previously been won by Cyrus Mistry for his book "Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer", by HM Naqvi for "Home Boy", by Shehan Karunatilaka for "Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew" and by Jeet Thayil for "Narcopolis".
Each of these winners has gone on to be published internationally.