Three Pakistani authors nominated for South Asian literature prize

Omar Shahid Hamid, Bilal Tanweer, Kamila Shamsie's novels among 10 books in the long-list

KARACHI: Three Pakistani writers have been included in the nominees for the 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Leading Indian author Keki N Daruwalla announced the initial 10-book list for the DSC Prize in New Delhi on Monday featuring authors originating from Pakistan, Afghanistan India, Sri Lanka. This list will be further revised and a shorter list of nominees will be announced on November 27.

The Pakistani novels listed are The Prisoner by Omar Shahid Hamid; The Scatter Here Is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer, and A God In Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie.

Other books in the list consist The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi; Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera; And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini; The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy; The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; Mad Girl’s Love Song by Rukmini Bhaya Nair; and Helium by Jaspreet Singh.

Daruwalla said the long-list had been pared down from a pool of 75 submissions, and had been made by a five-member jury comprising Daruwalla; literary critic and former Granta editor John Freeman; Maithree Wickramasinghe, who teaches at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Michael Worton, professor emeritus at the University College London, and Razi Ahmed, the founding chairman of the annual Lahore Literary Festival.

“It has been both exhausting and rewarding going through these seventy five novels. As expected the variety is considerable. Obviously there was a tremendous mix here—of themes, landscapes, styles, issues—both political and personal,” said Daruwalla, chair of the jury on the occasion.

The winner will be declared at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2015, and will also receive $50,000.

The award, now in its fifth year, has been previously won by Pakistan’s H M Naqvi in 2011 for his debut novel Home Boy. Naqvi had won the won the inaugural DSC Prize.