When it comes to Literature, the JCB Prize for Literature stands tall amongst all awards in India. Considered to be the richest literary prize in India, the award celebrates and showcases Indian authors, break down language barriers.
The prestigious is now open for entries and publishers across India are invited to enter novels for the prize, where a princely sum of Rs 25 lakhs is waiting for the winning author. The annual prize is designed to discover and celebrate distinguished works of fiction by Indian writers and to break down the barriers separating literature in different Indian languages.
About the Prize
The prize, funded by India’s leading manufacturer of earthmoving and construction equipment, JCB India Ltd, and administered by the JCB Literature Foundation, is open for entries until 31st May 2018. Publishers have entry quotas for works written in English, and separately, for works translated into English from any other language. If the winning book is translated, the translator will be awarded Rs 5 lakhs. By recognizing the full range of India’s literary traditions, the JCB Prize for Literature hopes to encourage future translations (both into English and between Indian languages) and therefore open up a truly Indian literature to readers. Shortlisted authors will get 1 lakh cash prize.
Lord Bamford, Chairman of JCB says, “As JCB approaches the important milestone of 40 years of manufacturing in India, there is no better time to launch the JCB Prize for Literature. It’s my hope that, in some small way, this prize will encourage more and more people to read and also be of benefit to writers and publishers in this extraordinary country.”
The Selection Procedure
Award-winning novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta is Literary Director of the prize and is responsible for holding the prize to the highest literary standards. Each year, the Literary Director will appoint a jury, whose job is to read all entries and select a longlist (in September), a shortlist (in October) and then a winner (in November). The jury will constitute of distinguished individuals from a variety of fields.
The Jury
This year’s jury consists of award-winning film director Deepa Mehta (Chair), founder of the Murty Classical Library of India, Rohan Murty, Yale University astrophysicist and writer Priyamvada Natarajan, novelist, Vivek Shanbhag, and author-translator, Arshia Sattar.
Books selected by the jury will be promoted in a visionary publicity campaign aimed not only at gaining many more readers for these important works, but also at raising the prestige and visibility of great literature itself.
The Director’s Note
Literary Director Rana Dasgupta says, “In a multilingual country like India, where there are many distinct literary traditions, no one can say they know ‘Indian literature’ if they read only books written in their own language. With this prize, we hope to stimulate far more translation between Indian languages, and so to give people a far deeper sense of what other people are talking and thinking about in the country.”
The Literary Director is supported in his decisions by the Advisory Council of the JCB Literature Foundation. The Advisory Council is chaired by former Chief Mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tarun Das, who is accompanied by author Amitav Ghosh, Delhi University Professor of English Literature Dr. Harish Trivedi, and art historian and environmentalist Pheroza Godrej.
“With the exception of writers who have been made famous by prizes in the US and UK, literary achievement receives rather little attention in India,” says Tarun Das. “The JCB Prize for Literature will trigger a much larger conversation around books, authors and reading in India, and present readers each year with the greatest works published in the country.”
All these information and much more is available on their official website www.thejcbprize.org
Source: India Education Diary