JCB Prize for Literature 2019: Perumal Murugan, Roshan Ali, Madhuri Vijay among shortlisted authors

The shortlist for the 2019 edition of the JCB Prize for Literature has been announced on Friday, 4 October 2019. In a press conference at New Delhi’s Oxford Bookstore, Pradip Krishen (chairperson of the 2019 JCB Prize jury) and Rana Dasgupta (Literary Director of JCB Prize) revealed the names of the five authors shortlisted for the coveted award that started in 2018. “This year’s shortlist displays a satisfying diversity of voices, as is appropriate to the scale and variety of this country. These five books transport us to very different parts of India, and give us access to very different kinds of life," Dasgupta said at the announcement ceremony. The running theme for this year’s line up reflects “diversity of Indian writing today” merged with a “deep sense of justice and injustice”. Among the selected five, two are works from debutant writers. The entries for the shortlist this year are as follows: 1. Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction - Roshan Ali (Penguin Random House India, 2019) 2. There’s Gunpowder in the Air - Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha (Westland Publications, 2018) 3. Trial by Silence and Lonely Harvest - Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan (Penguin Random House India, 2018) 4. My Father’s Garden by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Speaking Tiger Publishing Private Limited, 2018) 5. The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay (HarperCollins India, 2019)

The longlist was announced on 4 September. The jury panel for this year includes filmmaker and environmentalist Pradip Krishen who also chairs the panel, author and critic Anjum Hasan, authors KR Meera and Parvati Sharma, and economist and former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India Arvind Subramanian. “Bringing voices from across the country, these novels address the many specific difficulties of living a life in Indian society. With a combination of lyricism and humour, the five novelists portray characters who are at odds with their — very different — worlds. Their private struggles help illuminate larger themes, including patriarchy in rural southern India, religious and political conflict in Kashmir, and social and sexual marginalization in eastern India. Taken together these novels remind us that fiction remains the most powerful way for a society to examine its fundamental concerns,” said Pradip Krishen on the shortlist entries for JCB Prize for Literature 2019. Each of the authors in the shortlist will receive Rs 1 lakh. In case, a shortlisted work is a translation, along with the author, the translator will be awarded an additional Rs 50,000. The winner of the JCB Prize for Literature 2019 will be announced on 2 November 2019. The winner receives prize money worth Rs 25 lakh (for a translated work, the translator gets an additional Rs 10 lakh). The winner of the JCB Prize for Literature last year was Jasmine Days by Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib (Juggernaut Books).