The shortlist for JCB Awards, India's “richest literary prize”, has been announced. Unlike other awards where the winner takes all, the writers in the shortlist will receive Rs 1 lakh each. The winner, to be declared on October 24, will be awarded a whopping Rs 25 lakh.
JCB brings focus back on Indian writing, including translations. On the shortlist are two translated novels: Poonachi or The Story of a Black Goat by Perumal Murugan and Jasmine Days by Benyamin. “We all exist in linguistic ghettos,” said Rana Dasgupta, the literary director of the award, on the emphasis on translated books. Their mission is to encourage translation, so that there is more conversation between Indian languages. Each publishing house gets to send two books—part of their four-book quota—to the jury as part of their nomination for the award. “If they don't, they forfeit that quota,” said Dasgupta.
If a translated work wins, the translator will receive an additional Rs 5 lakh. For making the shortlist, Shahnaz Habib, who translated Benyamin's book, and N. Kalyan Raman, the translator of Perumal Murugan, will receive Rs 50,000 each.
The other books that made it to the shortlist include debut novelist Shubhangi Swarup's Latitudes of Longing, Amitabha Bagchi's Half the Night is Gone, and Anuradha Roy's All the Lives We Have Never Lived.
The criterion for a book to make the shortlist was that it should “transport” the reader, as jury member Arshia Sattar put it. “You have to be able to lose yourself,” says Sattar. And these books promise that.
