DSC Prize 2012 Longlist announced

The longlist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for 2010 was announced in Delhi today. There are 16 books on the list.

The list has both established as well debut novelists. There are also three translated entries. The five member jury each selected three works, revealed jury member Ira Pande. She said the list includes works from South Asia's cultural diversities as well as books that reflect urban as well as rural landscapes. There are two books on Afghanistan.

The shortlist will be announced on October 24 at the Shakespeare Globe in London, while the $50,000 prize will be given during the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2012.

"I am delighted that the DSC Prize is able to provide a global platform to recognize such fine works and present them to a wider audience," Manhad Narula of DSC said.

The longlist:
Omair Ahmad: Jimmy the Terrorist (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)
U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura ( Oxford University Press, India, Translated by Susheela Punitha)
Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry)
Siddharth Chowdhury: Day Scholar (Picador/Pan Macmillan, India)
Kishwar Desai: Witness the Night (HarperCollins/HarperCollins-India)
Namita Devidayal: Aftertaste (Random House, India)
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: One Amazing Thing (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)
Manu Joseph: Serious Men (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, India)
Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/Penguin India)
Shehan Karunatilaka: Chinaman (Random House, India)
Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins-India)
Jill McGivering: The Last Kestrel (Blue Door/HarperCollins-UK)
Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/Penguin India)
Atiq Rahimi: The Patience Stone (Chatto & Windus/Random House-UK, Translated by Polly McLean)
Kalpish Ratna: The Quarantine Papers (HarperCollins-India)
Samrat Upadhyay: Buddha's Orphan (Rupa Publications, India)

Bangalore book fest meets expectations

It may appear people are moving away from books, given the presence of many forms of entertainment. But that may not be the case, as the pleasure one gets out of reading a book cannot be replaced. The book grips you while giving you complete freedom.

You can turn the pages, you can keep it aside and return to it whenever you want. That was writer UR Ananthamurthy dismissing apprehensions about books losing their place in our lives, at the inauguration of a book festival, organised by Indya Comics and Bangalore University. The expo will be open till September 11.

Nearly 250 stalls will be put up. “This is our third time in the city. Last year, when we took part in a similar event, our stock was over in days. We had a good time. All our items are popular,” said Mansi Sachdeva of Kids Educational Aids. The thin turnout on the first day did not matter. “The crowds would come pouring in,” she said.

Full report here DNA 

"Dalit writings an integral part of Indian literary tradition"

Dalit literature, whether oral or written, has been an integral and enlivening part of Indian literary traditions for centuries, eminent writer and academic U. R. Ananthamurthy has said.

For the depressed classes like tribals and those destined to live in the lower rungs of social hierarchy literature had always been a means to achieve “self-respect, the Jnanpith Award winner said here on Sunday.

He was delivering a lecture on the “Contributions of Dalits to Indian literature”, organised by Dr. K. Ayyappa Panicker Foundation, in honour of the late Malayalam poet and scholar.

Quoting from Kannada and other Indian languages, Prof. Ananthamurthy said while non-Dalits could write about the Dalit situation they could not claim to represent the Dalits.

There had been several examples of non-Dalits writing on Dalit situation, like the famous Kannada novel “Chomana Dudi” by Shivaram Karanth. But there was a kind of arrogance when non—Dalits claimed to represent Dalits, he noted.

Full report here Hindu

"Dalit literature an integral part of Indian literary history"

Dalit literature, whether oral or written, has been an integral and enlivening part of Indian literary tradtions for centuries, eminent writer and academic U R Ananthamurthy has said. For the depressed classes like tribals and those destined to live in the lower rungs of the social hierarchy literature had always been a means to achieve "self-respect", the Jnanpith laureate said in Thiruvanathapuram last evening.

He was delivering a lecture on the "Contributions of Dalits to Indian literature", organised by Dr K Ayyappa Panicker Foundation, in honour of the late Malayalam poet and scholar. Quoting from Kannada and other Indian languages, Ananthamurthy said while non-Dalits could write about the Dalit situation they could not claim to represent the Dalits.

There had been several examples of non-Dalits writing on Dalit situation, like the famous Kannada novel "Chomana Dudi" by Shivaram Karanth. But there was a kind of arrogance when non-Dalits claimed to represent Dalits, he noted.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Remembering Ayyappa Panicker

The friends and disciples of poet Ayyappa Panicker are planning to celebrate his 80th birth anniversary in a big way. A function will be organised at 5 pm on September 12 at VJT Hall to commemorate the late poet.

Eminent Kannada writer and Jnanpith Award winner U R Ananthamoorthy will deliver this year’s Ayyappa Panicker Memorial Lecture on the topic  ‘Indian Literature: Dalit Contribution.’ The lecture will be followed by a discussion on the subject.  Ayyappa Panicker Foundation president K Satchidanandan will preside over the function and vice- president T P Sreenivasan will be the moderator.

Poetry at Midnight, an English translation by P Ravindran Nayar of  Ayyappa Panicker’s last anthology of poems, ‘Pathumanipookkal , will be formally released at the function by Ananthamoorthy.

The function will be followed by a visual representation of selected poems by Ayyappa Panicker on stage. Groups of students from the All-Saints’ College; Mar Ivanios College; NSS College for Women, Karamana and the Departments of English and Malayalam of the Kerala University will compete with their adaptations of chosen poems of Panicker. The team selected for the best performance will be presented with the Ayyappa Panicker Poetry Trophy.

Full report here New Indian Express

‘Writing is a form of prayer for me’

When one of Karnataka’s great writers, U R Anantha Murthy was a child, his mother fell seriously ill following the delivery of a son.

“We were living in a village where there were no proper facilities,” he says. “I prayed under a tree for her recovery. And she survived. Looking back, I know that God saved her life”.

As a child, Murthy had a favourite temple. It was a Shiva temple located on the banks of the Tunga river in Shimoga district in Karnataka.

Since there was no electricity, a small lamp was lit in the evenings inside the shrine. “When I looked intently at the flame, I was also able to see inside my soul,” says Murthy, a Jnanpith Award winner, who is on a brief visit to Kerala.

Full report here New Indian Express

Telugu short stories for global audience

After reading an anthology, 1947 Santoshabad Passenger and Other stories, 24 representative Telugu short stories translated into English by eminent journalist and teacher of media studies Dasu Krishnamoorty and his talented daughter Tamraparni Dasu, one would get into a dilemma, not the Hamletian kind but that of Alfred Prufrock’s, “How should I presume, And how should I begin.” Several years ago, when a scribe asked well-known novelist and professor of English UR Ananthamurthy, why he had asked AK Ramanujam to translate Samskara into English, though he could have done it himself, pat came the reply, “He is a better translator.” The same Ananthamurthy, again many years ago at a UGC-organised seminar on Contemporary Indian Literature, complained that not much was known about the happenings in the Telugu literature, as there was a dearth of English translations of Telugu works.

With talented English teachers like Alladi Uma, Sridhar, Vijayasree, T Vijaykumar, Jayalakshmi, Venkata Rao, GK Subbarayudu and CLL Jayaprada emerging to join the likes of Velcheru Narayana Rao, Ranga Rao and SS Prabhakara Rao, the scenario of translations, from Telugu to English, has undergone a significant change and the void seems to be filling up.

The father and daughter team of Krishnamoorty and Tamraparni are the latest to emerge to take Telugu literature to readers of English, including our own Telugu yuppies who cannot read their mother tongue, besides introducing the richness of Telugu short story to global audience.

Full report here Express Buzz