New prize for south Asian literature in English

JAIPUR - DSC Limited, an infrastructure company, has announced a prize of $50,000 for south Asian and sub-continental literature.

“The purse of $50,000 will be awarded to the winner in 2011. The award will recognise writers of any ethnicity writing about south Asia and its diaspora. The books competing for the prize must be an original work of fiction published during April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010, written in English or translated into English,” said DSC chairman H.S. Narula, who is behind the Jaipur Literature Festival.

The judging panel for the DSC prize will comprise people of eminence in literature, arts and culture.

The award will be announced on the final day of the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in 2011 and the Daily Beast, led by editor-columnist-writer Tina Brown, will be the mouthpiece of the award to reach out to a global audience.

The prize will be administered by an international advisory panel whose members will include Tina Brown, Urvashi Butalia, Meghnad Desai, David Godwin, Nayantara Sehgal and Michael Worton.

“We have supported the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival for the past four years and are delighted to see it grow in stature to become the largest literary event in this region.

“I would like to use this forum to announce that in continuation of our patronage of literature, we are instituting The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. This is the first award of its kind and aims to recognize the talents of South Asian writing and support new writing about this region,” Narula said.

Tina Brown said: “We’re thrilled to be associated with the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and look forward to introducing The Daily Beast’s readers to the best writers in the region.”