The JCB Prize for Literature announces its 2023 shortlist

The JCB Prize for literature announced its shortlist for 2023 at an event in Jaipur this evening. 

In its sixth year, the annual award that recognises works of fiction by an Indian author has three translations—from Bengali, Hindi and Tami, in its shortlist of five books. Mita Kapur, the literary director of the JCB Prize said that the shortlist “beautifully captures the kaleidoscope of India's literary landscape”.

The shortlist is comprised of:

• The Secret of More by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm (Aleph Book Company, 2022) 
  (Read our review here)
• The Nemesis by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy  (Westland Books, 2023)
• Fire Bird by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan (Penguin Random House India, 2023)
• Mansur by Vikramajit Ram (Pan Macmillan India, 2022)
• I Named my Sister Silence by Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Westland Books, 2023)
  (Read our review here)

This year's jury for the JCB Prize for literature was chaired by the translator Srinath Perur, and included writer Somak Ghoshal, playwright Mahesh Dattani, conservation journalist Swati Thiyagarajan, and the surgeon-novelist Kavery Nambisan. 

“It turned out that every book on the longlist was a serious shortlist candidate for at least one jury member,” said Perur on the quality of the longlist that was announced early September. 

Also Read: JCB Prize for Literature: Translations shine once again in the longlist

Each of the shortlisted writers receives ₹1 lakh as an award. Translated works on the shortlist will entail an award of Rs. 50,000 for the translator. 

The winner of this year's JCB Prize will be announced on 18 November, and will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakh. If the winning book is a translation, the translator will be independently awarded an additional cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh. 

Last year, Khalid Jawed's The Paradise of Food, translated by Baran Farooqi, had won the award.