Literary enthusiasts might get a chance to interact with award-winning authors at a special event during the Commonwealth Games which will host all previous winners of the annual Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
"We hope to include a literary event in the cultural programmes associated with the Games and will bring to Delhi authors from different periods who have won since the Commonwealth Prize was instituted 24 years ago," Mike Collins, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, told PTI.
Collins is in the capital along with winners of the regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and Pacific. The final Prize for the Best Book and Best First Book would be announced at a grand ceremony on April 12.
"To have the final ceremony of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize here is great. It is a sort of beginning for
the cultural celebrations for the Games. We are still mulling the details but it will be possible to include all the winners across different periods and regions across the years for the literary event in October," Collins said.
The previous winners of the Prize include Vikram Chandra, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mohammed Hanif, V S Naipaul, J M Coetzee, Indra Sinha, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood among others.
"India is at the very heart of the Commonwealth and it is great to have the Games and the literary Prize come here.While the Prize is the most inclusive Prize it is not the perfect because it covers only a quarter to the third of the countries of the world," said Collins.
Established in 1987, the Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and Pacific, and aims to reward the best fiction written in English, by both established and new writers.
The Foundation attempts to get participation from writers from lesser known areas come forward and participate. "We are trying to use the women as role models and act as ambassadors for those who do not have access to the literature from other countries," said Collins.
"We are constantly looking at local publishers to enter the Prize. For the first time we have a winner from Samoa, a relatively lesser known African country. This Prize offers opportunities to writers to sharing of identities and experiences and ways of writing with other cultures and peoples," adds Collins.
Full report here PTI
Showing posts with label Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Show all posts
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Fierce competition for Commonwealth Prize
Competition is fierce among a widely diverse set of literary works for this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize, but the capital hosting the award ceremony is abuzz with positive literary energy.
As the countdown begins for the annnouncement of the winner, the authors assembled here are gratified by the fact that they are winners from their respective regions, even as the jury goes through a grilling experience of choosing from the world's best literary work.
The eight regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the panel of judges are in the capital for the final round of the Award to be announced on Monday, and some feel its like a choice between oranges and apples. "To me it is one of the most unusual prizes, because each of the eight authors coming from each of the four regions have already won the prizes in their own regions," says Michael Crummey, the Canadian author whose 'Galore' has been adjudged the best book in the Caribbean and Canada region.
"Amidst this diverse set of books, picking one is like choosing between apples and oranges. For me winning will be an icing on the cake, being here is in itself an achievement," he told PTI.
Agrees Rana Dasgupta, the Delhi-based British Indian novelist, whose second literary work 'Solo', a story that encompasses a century of communist and post-communist regimes in Bulgaria, has won the best book for the South Asia and Europe region.
Dasgupta says the fact that the contending literary works are drawn from such a large part of the world and are so varied makes the prize an important one, but the choice from here is always subjective.
"I have not yet got the time to read the other books that are competing, just read Daniyal's (Mueenuddin) book. But the writers, all of whom are winners in their own right, have gathered here are a fantastic group of people.
"When you have already got to this stage, the choice from here is largely arbitrary, it will depend much on personal tastes," he said.
The Commonwealth is a group of 54 countries, and the finalists for the award are the authors that have been adjudged the best in the four regions comprising it. For the first time in the history of this award, a writer from Samoa is among the finalists, and Mark Collins, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, says the foundation is working to promote and encourage authors from places that are hitherto lesser-known on the literary scene.
"This prize has gone to lesser-known areas, like Samao, this time. We are also encouraging smaller and lesser
known publishing houses from places that are not yet well known on the literary scene but definitely have a lot of talent," he told PTI.
Full report here PTI
As the countdown begins for the annnouncement of the winner, the authors assembled here are gratified by the fact that they are winners from their respective regions, even as the jury goes through a grilling experience of choosing from the world's best literary work.
The eight regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the panel of judges are in the capital for the final round of the Award to be announced on Monday, and some feel its like a choice between oranges and apples. "To me it is one of the most unusual prizes, because each of the eight authors coming from each of the four regions have already won the prizes in their own regions," says Michael Crummey, the Canadian author whose 'Galore' has been adjudged the best book in the Caribbean and Canada region.
"Amidst this diverse set of books, picking one is like choosing between apples and oranges. For me winning will be an icing on the cake, being here is in itself an achievement," he told PTI.
Agrees Rana Dasgupta, the Delhi-based British Indian novelist, whose second literary work 'Solo', a story that encompasses a century of communist and post-communist regimes in Bulgaria, has won the best book for the South Asia and Europe region.
Dasgupta says the fact that the contending literary works are drawn from such a large part of the world and are so varied makes the prize an important one, but the choice from here is always subjective.
"I have not yet got the time to read the other books that are competing, just read Daniyal's (Mueenuddin) book. But the writers, all of whom are winners in their own right, have gathered here are a fantastic group of people.
"When you have already got to this stage, the choice from here is largely arbitrary, it will depend much on personal tastes," he said.
The Commonwealth is a group of 54 countries, and the finalists for the award are the authors that have been adjudged the best in the four regions comprising it. For the first time in the history of this award, a writer from Samoa is among the finalists, and Mark Collins, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, says the foundation is working to promote and encourage authors from places that are hitherto lesser-known on the literary scene.
"This prize has gone to lesser-known areas, like Samao, this time. We are also encouraging smaller and lesser
known publishing houses from places that are not yet well known on the literary scene but definitely have a lot of talent," he told PTI.
Full report here PTI
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Can Karachi get a new start?
A tourist visa to Pakistan, priced at Rs 15, roughly the same as a local bus or Metro ticket in Delhi, sounds like a deliciously tempting bargain but getting there, at this twisted juncture in India-Pakistan relations, is not a joy ride. There is only once-a-week PIA connection between Delhi and Karachi. Writers like Fatima Bhutto, who is promoting her family memoir Songs of Blood & Sword in India this week, or the literary critic Muneeza Shamsie who is the regional chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize to be announced in Delhi in later this month, have to travel to Delhi via Dubai. Everywhere I went during the five days I spent in Pakistan last week, friends, acquaintances and colleagues complained of the hardship in getting Indian visas. Fehmida Riaz, the country’s leading feminist poet who spent several years of exile in India during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, spoke of the tedious paperwork involved including translated and attested copies of ID cards.
Karachi is not reputed as a sub-continental beauty spot. Jihadist battles, gang wars and gunfire are familiar street sights and sounds, drug trafficking in its vast slums, kidnappings and political violence between Sindhi nationalists and MQM, the muhajir party of immigrants from UP and Bihar, are the stuff of everyday life. The horrific kidnap, torture and beheading of Daniel Pearl by Al Qaeda operatives in 2002 certified Karachi as the bad news capital of South Asia. Kolkata, with its slow-moving strikers and fading hammer-and-sickle graffiti or Mumbai with its “maximum city” appellation of overall wretchedness, seem vaguely hopeful in comparison.
Full report here Business Standard
Karachi is not reputed as a sub-continental beauty spot. Jihadist battles, gang wars and gunfire are familiar street sights and sounds, drug trafficking in its vast slums, kidnappings and political violence between Sindhi nationalists and MQM, the muhajir party of immigrants from UP and Bihar, are the stuff of everyday life. The horrific kidnap, torture and beheading of Daniel Pearl by Al Qaeda operatives in 2002 certified Karachi as the bad news capital of South Asia. Kolkata, with its slow-moving strikers and fading hammer-and-sickle graffiti or Mumbai with its “maximum city” appellation of overall wretchedness, seem vaguely hopeful in comparison.
Full report here Business Standard
Friday, March 12, 2010
Flying Solo
Rana Dasgupta has been named among the regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 in the Best Book category for Europe and South Asia for his novel Solo, woven around the life of a 100-year-old Bulgarian.
Solo is 1971-born Dasgupta's second novel after Tokyo Cancelled (2005), which looked at how globalisation is impacting everyday lives across the world.
In Solo (2009) writes "an epic tale of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries told from the perspective of a one hundred-year old Bulgarian man. Having achieved little in his twentieth-century life, he settles into a long and prophetic daydream of the twenty-first century, where all the ideological experiments of the old century are over, and a collection of startling characters - demons and angels - live a life beyond utopia." (Wikipedia).
The contenders for Best Book included two other novels by Indian authors — For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla and Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.
Dasgupta, who describes himself as ‘a British writer living in Delhi’, was born and bred in Canterbury, and his first novel was referred to as a modern version of Canterbury Tales.
-=-=-
Interview with the author:
The Canterbury tale-teller Sunday Times
Author's website
http://www.ranadasgupta.com
Solo is 1971-born Dasgupta's second novel after Tokyo Cancelled (2005), which looked at how globalisation is impacting everyday lives across the world.In Solo (2009) writes "an epic tale of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries told from the perspective of a one hundred-year old Bulgarian man. Having achieved little in his twentieth-century life, he settles into a long and prophetic daydream of the twenty-first century, where all the ideological experiments of the old century are over, and a collection of startling characters - demons and angels - live a life beyond utopia." (Wikipedia).
The contenders for Best Book included two other novels by Indian authors — For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla and Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.
Dasgupta, who describes himself as ‘a British writer living in Delhi’, was born and bred in Canterbury, and his first novel was referred to as a modern version of Canterbury Tales.
-=-=-
Interview with the author:
The Canterbury tale-teller Sunday Times
Author's website
http://www.ranadasgupta.com
Two Canadian writers make the final of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize
AFTER MONTHS of anticipation, the winners for best book and first best book from the Caribbean and Canada have been announced and will now go through to the final stage of the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in April.
Internationally recognized for propelling authors into the literary spotlight, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to enhance their reputation. Next month Michael Crummey with his book Galore and Shandi Mitchell for her book Under this Unbroken Sky will go head to head with regional winners from Africa, South Asia and Europe and South East Asia and Pacific to compete for the global prizes for best book and best first book.
In its 24th year, the critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers’ Prize has a strong track record of discovering new international stars. The winners of Best First Book and Best Book from the Caribbean and Canada will join some of the biggest names in fiction to have been recognised by the Prize, including Lawrence Hill and Alice Munroe.
Presented by the Commonwealth Foundation with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation, the Prize’s final programme, starting on 7 April in Delhi, India will bring together the finalists from the different regions of the Commonwealth, and the two overall winners will be announced there on 12 April.
Commenting today, The Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Mark Collins, said: “The level of entries this year has been absolutely outstanding and the competition is fierce. I would like to congratulate Michael Crummey and Shandi Mitchell in getting through to the final stage and I look forward to welcoming them to India. Once again, the Prize is identifying the best of Commonwealth fiction written in English and in doing so, spotting rising talent and creating new literary heroes from the Commonwealth. Taken as a whole, the eight winning books – from Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Pakistan, Samoa, South Africa and the UK – are reaching out to readers across all cultures. These compelling works that have reached the final stage offer strong insight, spirit and voice about the incredible diversity, history and life of the Commonwealth.”
David Clarke, Chairman of the Macquarie Group Foundation, the main sponsor of the Prize, added:
"The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is unique in giving a voice to authors who throw light on evolving social realities. The Macquarie Group Foundation is delighted to be part of recognising this new literary talent from around the world, and to help support young writers."
Regional Chair Dr Antonia MacDonald-Smythe said:
”Revisiting patriarchal myth of man versus landscape and fight for dominance, Shandi Mitchell in Under This Unbroken Sky evokes with restrained lyricism the survival strategies of a Ukrainian family in the unforgiving prairie of Northern Canada. Mitchell’s own sensuous response to her environment is powerfully reflected in her characters, who are seeking to align themselves with that indifferent world even as the tensions of their past lead them into an intricate, inevitable and entirely convincing tragedy.”
Michael Crummey captures the moral life of a vanished world in which passionate individuals do battle with an unforgiving landscape. He never falters in his rendering of the Newfoundland idiom and in the energy of a story that spans six generations. Etched in wit, raucous and inventive, Crummey’s Galore is a seamless melding of myth and history, a epic masterpiece that is grounded in the folklore of a unique part of Canada.
Both Crummey and Mitchell are first class storytellers. Their narratives grip you by the throat and never let go of you. Long after you put these two books down the memory of that highly charged reading experience stays with you.”
From The Barnacle
Internationally recognized for propelling authors into the literary spotlight, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to enhance their reputation. Next month Michael Crummey with his book Galore and Shandi Mitchell for her book Under this Unbroken Sky will go head to head with regional winners from Africa, South Asia and Europe and South East Asia and Pacific to compete for the global prizes for best book and best first book.
In its 24th year, the critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers’ Prize has a strong track record of discovering new international stars. The winners of Best First Book and Best Book from the Caribbean and Canada will join some of the biggest names in fiction to have been recognised by the Prize, including Lawrence Hill and Alice Munroe.
Presented by the Commonwealth Foundation with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation, the Prize’s final programme, starting on 7 April in Delhi, India will bring together the finalists from the different regions of the Commonwealth, and the two overall winners will be announced there on 12 April.
Commenting today, The Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Mark Collins, said: “The level of entries this year has been absolutely outstanding and the competition is fierce. I would like to congratulate Michael Crummey and Shandi Mitchell in getting through to the final stage and I look forward to welcoming them to India. Once again, the Prize is identifying the best of Commonwealth fiction written in English and in doing so, spotting rising talent and creating new literary heroes from the Commonwealth. Taken as a whole, the eight winning books – from Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Pakistan, Samoa, South Africa and the UK – are reaching out to readers across all cultures. These compelling works that have reached the final stage offer strong insight, spirit and voice about the incredible diversity, history and life of the Commonwealth.”
David Clarke, Chairman of the Macquarie Group Foundation, the main sponsor of the Prize, added:
"The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is unique in giving a voice to authors who throw light on evolving social realities. The Macquarie Group Foundation is delighted to be part of recognising this new literary talent from around the world, and to help support young writers."
Regional Chair Dr Antonia MacDonald-Smythe said:
”Revisiting patriarchal myth of man versus landscape and fight for dominance, Shandi Mitchell in Under This Unbroken Sky evokes with restrained lyricism the survival strategies of a Ukrainian family in the unforgiving prairie of Northern Canada. Mitchell’s own sensuous response to her environment is powerfully reflected in her characters, who are seeking to align themselves with that indifferent world even as the tensions of their past lead them into an intricate, inevitable and entirely convincing tragedy.”
Michael Crummey captures the moral life of a vanished world in which passionate individuals do battle with an unforgiving landscape. He never falters in his rendering of the Newfoundland idiom and in the energy of a story that spans six generations. Etched in wit, raucous and inventive, Crummey’s Galore is a seamless melding of myth and history, a epic masterpiece that is grounded in the folklore of a unique part of Canada.
Both Crummey and Mitchell are first class storytellers. Their narratives grip you by the throat and never let go of you. Long after you put these two books down the memory of that highly charged reading experience stays with you.”
From The Barnacle
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