DSC Prize winner to be announced on Dec 16

With six shortlisted authors from diverse backgrounds in contention, the winner of the peripatetic $25,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will be announced on the concluding day of the IME Nepal Literature Festival at Pokhara on December 16. This is in keeping with its tradition of announcing the winner in a different South Asian country every year.

The six novels contending for the DSC Prize 2019 are 'The Far Field' by debutant author Madhuri Vijay, 'Half the Night is Gone' by Amitabha Bagchi, '99 Nights in Logar' by Jamil Jan Kochai, 'There's Gunpowder in the Air' by Manoranjan Byapari (translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha), 'The City and the Sea' by Raj Kamal Jha and 'The Empty Room' by Sadia Abbas.

All the shortlisted authors barring Madhuri, who has just delivered a baby girl, will be present at the awards ceremony.

The DSC shortlist includes three debut novelists, including two women writers, and a novel that has been translated from Bengali. There are four authors of Indian origin and one author each of Pakistani and Afghan origin.

The DSC Prize, which was constituted by Surina Narula and Manhad Narula back in 2010, celebrates and showcases the immense talent that is writing about the South Asian region

Apart from original English writing, the DSC Prize encourages regional writing as translations from any South Asian languages into English can be entered for the prize.

"We are delighted to announce winner of the DSC Prize 2019 at the IME Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara. There is a significant amount of writing emanating from and about the South Asian region that needs to be showcased and presented to a larger global readership. Both the prize and the festival share a common vision to promote South Asian literature, and there is a rich literary landscape in Nepal which I hope will benefit from this partnership," Surina Narula said.