Jayant Kaikini and Tejaswini Niranjana win DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018

Wednesday 30th January 2019 02:07 EST
 
 

'No Presents Please', originally written in Kannada by noted author Jayant Kaikini and translated by eminent translator Tejaswini Niranjana, has been announced as the winner of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018 at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in Kolkata. In a glitzy ceremony, the $ 25,000 DSC Prize was awarded to the two, along with a unique trophy by eminent writer Ruskin Bond. According to the prize process, the prize money should be equally shared between the author and the translator.

This year, there were six shortlisted authors and books in contention for the DSC Prize. Jayant Kaikini: No Presents Please (Translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, Harper Perennial, HarperCollins India), Kamila Shamsie: Home Fire (Riverhead Books, USA and Bloomsbury, UK), Manu Joseph: Miss Laila Armed And Dangerous (Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, India), Mohsin Hamid: Exit West (Riverhead Books, USA and Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India), Neel Mukherjee: A State Of Freedom (Chatto; Windus, Vintage, UK and Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, India) and Sujit Saraf: Harilal; Sons (Speaking Tiger, India).

Jury Chair Rudrangshu Mukherjee, who spoke on behalf of the jury said, “The jury decided to award the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018 to 'No Presents Please' by Jayant Kaikini which has been translated by Tejaswini Niranjana and published by Harper Perennial. The jury was deeply impressed by the quiet voice of the author through which he presented vignettes of life in Mumbai and made the city the protagonist of a coherent narrative. The Mumbai that came across through the pen of Kaikini was the city of ordinary people who inhabit the bustling metropolis. It is a view from the margins and all the more poignant because of it.”


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