Such a Long Journey: The longlist for the 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is out

The 10 authors from the longlist come from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, some of whom are based in the US, the UK and Canada.

Poet and writer Keki N Daruwalla had the small gathering in splits when he said that Khushwant Singh would have been rather disappointed with the books that have made the longlist for the 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. “After reading all the books, I find that there is very little sex in them. I think the authors ought to read erotica,” laughed Daruwalla. The 10 novels are vying for the 50,000 USD prize, which will be announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2015.

In its fifth year, the prize has welcomed over 75 entries. The competition is open to writers from all over the world as long as their narrative and characters are located in the subcontinent and represents the multiverses of the region. “The variety is considerable; the stories ranged from 18th and 19th century history to tribal rebellions, to the Naxalite era in West Bengal, to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. What we looked for, among other things, is the over-all concept of the novel and the texture of language and style,” said Daruwalla, chair of the jury. Others in the jury include John Freeman, former editor of Granta (US), Maithree Wickramsinghe, Professor of English at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and the University of Sussex, Michael Worton, Professor Emeritus at University College London and Razi Ahmed, founding director of the Lahore Literary Festival. The announcement was accompanied by dramatic readings of last year’s winner Cyrus Mistry’s Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer by Momo Ghosh and Kriti Pant, members of Tadpole Repertory.

This year’s contenders are: The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer; Helium by Jaspreet Singh; The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie; And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini; The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy; The Prisoner by Omar Shahih Hamid; Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera; Mad Girl’s Love Song by Rukmini Bhaya Nair; and The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. The shortlist will be announced on November 27 at the London School of Economics.