Journalist and editor A.S. Panneerselvan is the jury chair
for the fifth edition of the Rs 25 lakh JCB Prize for Literature, India's
richest literary award. Jury members are -- Author Amitabha Bagchi, author and
academician Rakhee Balaram, historian and academician Dr J Devika and, author
Janice Pariat.
The jury represents a range of Indian languages and mediums
of expression between them and brings a set of diverse points of view to the
task of selecting the best of fiction from India.
The jury will announce the long list of ten titles on
September 2 (subject to change), followed by the shortlist of five titles on
October 3. The winner of the will be declared at the awards ceremony in
November, on a date to be announced.
If the winning work is a translation, the translator will be
awarded an additional Rs 10 lakh. Each of the five shortlisted authors will
receive Rs 1 lakh; if a shortlisted work is a translation, the translator will
receive Rs 50,000.
Commenting on this year's jury, Mita Kapur, Literary
Director of the JCB Prize for Literature, said: "Every year at the JCB
Prize for Literature, we are privileged to read books that are born in
different parts of the country, written in English and in Indian languages
translated into English, created by emerging as well as established writers.
"To do justice to these myriad voices and worlds, the
JCB Prize for Literature needs a jury that is as diverse and interesting as the
books themselves. Our 2022 panel brings together writers, editors, art
historians and translators to lend their nuanced assessment of the submissions
we receive. With their vast experience and unique sensibilities, we are sure
they will discover the gems that will make their way onto every book lover's
must-read list," Kapur added.
The 2021 JCB Prize for Literature was awarded to
"Delhi: A Soliloquy" by M. Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by
Fathima EV and Nandakumar K, and published by Westland.
Hailed as a contemporary classic in Malayalam, it's a
masterful novel about ordinary people whose lives and stories have leached into
the very soil and memories of Delhi.
This was the third time in four years and the second year in
succession that a Malayalam translation was so honoured.
Aiming to increase inclusivity in readership, the book was
also made available by the JCB Literature Foundation in a digitally accessible
format for anyone in the visually impaired spectrum.
Other previous winners have been 'Jasmine Days' by Benyamin
(2018), translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib, 'The Far Field' by
Madhuri Vijay (2019), and 'Moustache' by S. Hareesh (2020), translated from the
Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil.
"Being a jury member of a well-resourced literary prize
is the best way to know what is happening in the world of letters and ideas,"
Panneerselvan said.
"Fiction has a way of capturing the multiple hues of
human experience which eludes a purely journalistic or academic pursuit. The
prize has no artificial literary barrier such as language or region. The
conscious decision to include translations truly widens the scope. The entire
exercise from creating a longlist, going to a shortlist, and then finalising
the winner, is a celebration of the pluralistic creative tradition of South
Asia," he added.
A.S. Panneerselvan is a journalist, editor and columnist. He
heads the Centre for Study in Public Sphere, Roja Muthiah Research Library in
Chennai. He is also the author of 'Karunanidhi: A Life', a definitive biography
of M Karunanidhi, and the editor of an anthology of essays, 'Uncertain
Journeys'. In 2022, the Tamil Nadu government conferred him with the GU Pope
Award for his literary contributions. In his extensive career in the media, he
has worked with several prestigious media houses and networks, including the
Sun Network, Outlook magazine, and the Hindu, amongst others. His next book is
the 'Periodic Table of Tamil Modernity: 1858 to 1968'.
Amitabha Bagchi is the author of four novels. The first,
'Above Average', was a bestseller. His second novel, 'The Householder', was
published to critical acclaim, the third, 'This Place', was shortlisted for the
Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014, and the fourth, 'Half the Night is Gone',
won the 2019 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and was shortlisted for the
2018 JCB Prize for Literature. He has written and published several research
papers over his extensive career as a researcher and professor, specialising in
Computer Science.
Janice Pariat is the author of 'The Nine-Chambered Heart',
'Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories', and 'Seahorse: A Novel'. She
was awarded the Young Writer Award by the Sahitya Akademi and the Crossword
Book Award for Fiction in 2013. In 2014, she was the Charles Wallace Creative
Writing Fellow at the University of Kent, and a Writer in Residence at the TOJI
Residency in South Korea in 2019. Janice also teaches Creative Writing and Art
History at Ashoka University. Her novel 'Everything the Light Touches' is
forthcoming.
Rakhee Balaram is an Assistant Professor of Global Art &
Art History at the University of Albany, State University of New York, where
she specializes in modern and contemporary art. She is the author of
Counterpractice: Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Art of French Feminism and
20th-Century Indian Art: Modern, Post-Independence, Contemporary. Her
curatorial work includes Fragility, an exhibition of contemporary Indian art.
Her research has been supported by the Art Histories Fellowship in Berlin, the
ICI Berlin Institute of Cultural Inquiry, and the Tata SPEAR grant, among
others. Balaram holds double doctorates in French Literature from Cambridge
University and History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art.
Dr J Devika is a historian, feminist, social critic and
academician. She currently researches and teaches at the Centre for Development
Studies. She has authored several books and articles on gender, politics,
social reforms and development in Kerala in publications like Kafila, Economic
and Political Weekly and The Wire. She has translated both fiction and
non-fiction books between Malayalam and English, including the translation of
Nalini Jameela's autobiography and the short stories of K.R. Meera and Sarah
Joseph.