The winner of the ninth edition of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature will be announced at the Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara on December 16. The US $25,000 international literary prize focuses on South Asian fiction writing and is open to authors of any ethnicity or nationality.
The DSC Prize announces its winner at different South Asian locations every year. The 2016 edition of the DSC prize was announced at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka, whereas the DSC Prize 2017 was awarded at the Dhaka Lit Fest in Bangladesh. The DSC Prize 2018 was presented at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet in India.
By encouraging best writing about the region, the prize has played big role in raising awareness about South Asian literature and culture and bring the best writing of the region to the world literary map.
The DSC prize also encourages writing in regional languages and translations, and whenever a translated entry has won the award, the prize money has been equally shared between the author and the translator.
Speaking about the partnership, Surina Narula, co-founder of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature said, “We are delighted to partner with the Nepal Literature Festival to announce the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 in the picturesque city of Pokhara in December. Both the prize and the festival share a common vision to promote and highlight South Asian literature, and there is a rich literary landscape in Nepal which I hope will benefit from this partnership.”
“There is a significant amount of writing emanating from and about the South Asian region that needs to be showcased and presented to a larger global readership. “
Commenting on the partnership, Ajit Baral, director of the Nepal Literature Festival said, “It is a great honour for us to host the announcement of the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, a prestigious literary award that has done much to bring international recognition to South Asian literature over the years. We are excited about the partnership as it syncs well with our aspiration to turn the Nepal Literature Festival into a neutral South Asian forum for writers, artists, public intellectuals and politicians of the region to come together and discuss a cornucopia of issues, including those which might be off-limits in other parts of the region..”
Administered by the South Asian Literature Prize & Events Trust, the DSC Prize prides itself on a thorough and transparent judging process and is modelled on global best practices. At the core of the process does the 5-member international jury panel comprise literary luminaries drawn from diverse geographies and expertise, which is solely empowered to adjudicate on the entries received, and their decision is final.
The jury panel is currently evaluating the entries that have come in for the DSC Prize 2019 and would first arrive at a longlist of 12-15 books in end September. Thereafter the jury would announce a shortlist of 5 or 6 books in early November at the London School of Economics in London. The DSC Prize 2019 would culminate with the announcement of the final winner at a special award ceremony at the Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara on 16th December 2019.
