The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature longlist announced

The longlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 was announced earlier this month (October 16).  A total of 11 books which represent a mix of established writers and debut novelists are in contention for the $50,000 (£32,369) prize. Once again, Indian writers and publishers dominate the list.

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2016 longlist in full:

1. Aatish Taseer: The Way Things Were (Picador/PanMacmillan, India)
2. Akhil Sharma: Family Life (Faber & Faber, UK)
3. Amit Chaudhuri: Odysseus Abroad (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin India)
4. Anuradha Roy: Sleeping on Jupiter (Hachette, India)
5. K.R. Meera: Hang Woman (translated by J Devika ; Penguin, India)
6. Minoli Salgado: A Little Dust on the Eyes (Peepal Tree Press, UK)
7. Mirza Waheed: The Book of Gold Leaves (Viking/Penguin India)
8. Monica Byrne: The Girl in the Road (Blackfriars/Little, Brown Book Group, UK)
9. Neel Mukherjee: The Lives of Others (Vintage/Penguin Random House, UK)
10. Raj Kamal Jha: She Will Build Him A City (Bloomsbury, India)
11. Sandip Roy: Don’t Let Him Know (Bloomsbury, India)

This year’s international  jury panel includes  Mark Tully, renowned journalist for over four decades who has commented on a wide range of issues affecting the South Asian region and Chair of the jury panel, Dennis Walder, Emeritus Professor of Literature at the Open University, UK who has authored several articles and books on 19th and 20th century literature, Karen Allman, highly respected book seller and literary coordinator based out of Seattle, USA, Neloufer de Mel, Senior Professor of English at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka who has written extensively on society, culture and feminism, and Syed Manzoorul Islam, celebrated Bangladeshi writer, translator, critic and academic.

The jury will now deliberate on the longlist over the next month and the shortlist for the DSC Prize 2016 will be announced on 26^th November at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) in London.

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature has previously been won by HM Naqvi for Home Boy, by Shehan Karunatilaka for Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, by Jeet Thayil for Narcopolis, by Cyrus Mistry for Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer and by Jhumpa Lahiri for The Lowland.

Image of Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014.