2023 JCB Prize for Literature longlist: Past favourites, internationally acclaimed authors, and debutants

The 2023 JCB Prize for Literature longlist.

India’s most prestigious literary award, the JCB Prize for Literature, released its longlist on September 2. A list of five finalists will be released on October 18. Each shortlisted author will get Rs 1 lakh and an additional Rs 50,000 for the translator if the finalist book happens to be a translated work. The winner, which will be announced on November 18, shall take away Rs 25 lakh. And if the prize-winning book happens to be a translated one, then the translator gets an additional Rs 10 lakh.

This year’s jury includes literary critic and learning designer Somak Ghosal, playwright and theatre personality Mahesh Dattani, conservation journalist and filmmaker Swati Thiyagarajan, author and surgeon, Kavery Nambisan, and is chaired by award-winning author and translator Srinath Perur.

On the longlist announcement, the literary director of the prize, and the founder and CEO of literary agency Siyahi, Mita Kapur notes that “these 10 books [represent] audacious spirit and refreshingly cutting-edge expressions of how human nature shapes the direction of society.”

While there were noteworthy exclusions this year — Anjum Hasan’s History’s Angel (Bloomsbury), debut novelist Devika Rege’s Quarterlife (HarperCollins), Nilanjana S Roy’s Black River (Westland), Anees Salim’s The Bellboy (Penguin) to name a few — the list is indeed full of stories that reflect on the cultural, social and personal barriers that their protagonists overcome to tell their stories and celebrates the unique narratives across genres published in India.

The longlist includes the International Booker-longlisted and previously nominated author Perumal Murugan’s Fire Bird (Penguin). The Tamil writer’s work has been translated by Janani Kannan. Though the book explores the peculiarities of familial bonds, it draws from the author’s experiences of displacement. Another past finalist is Manoranjan Byapari, whose second installation of the Chandal Jibon trilogy and sequel to The Runaway Boy, The Nemesis (Eka, an imprint of Westland), translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy, is contending for this year’s prize. Byapari’s trademark writing style and humour, mixed with anger against the establishment and the caste-heteropatriarchal world, are reflected through the protagonist Jibon’s journey at the cusp of East Pakistan’s liberation and a tumultuous political period in India.

Two other translated works are from the Hindi language. One is previous finalist Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar who returns as a translator, with his first work of translation, for Manoj Rupda’s I Named My Sister Silence (Eka, an imprint of Westland). An eclectic mix of political situation in Bastar, human-induced violence on nature, and a deeply personal quest, Rupda’s Kaale Adhyaay is masterfully translated by Sowvendra Shekhar. The other is Geet Chaturvedi’s debut novel in translation Simsim (Penguin). Translated by Anita Gopalan, memories of the partition of Punjab, reality and imagination are at the heart of this narrative that features a library which no one visits.

Other debut novelists joining the longlist are Tejaswini Apte-Rahm and Bikram Sharma. While Apte-Rahm’s The Secret of More (Aleph) is set in colonial Bombay as its protagonist Tatya “strives to unlock the secret of more,” Sharma’s The Colony of Shadows (Hachette) tells the story of a youngster who discovers a mysterious colony as he processes the loss of his parents.

Novelist-academic Brinda Charry’s The East Indian (HarperCollins) is another one on the longlist that tells the tale of an orphan and its protagonist, “an indentured servant” Tony’s longing for home. Sahitya Akademi award-winning novelist Janice Pariat’s Everything the Light Touches (HarperCollins) is a complex yet rewarding nature-centric story of travellers, especially Shai, a young woman who journeys to India’s north-east region. The Guardian hailed the book as having “a dialogue with nature”.

Another Sahitya Akademi award-winning novelist gracing the list is Tanuj Solanki, who was previously nominated for the prize for The Machine Is Learning (Pan Macmillan). Solanki’s Manjhi’s Mayhem (Penguin) celebrates the Dalit protagonist in a way that’s not often witnessed in Indian literature. Sewaram Manjhi, a security guard, creates absolute mayhem as he is overcome by desire in the precarious world he has come to inhabit owing to his caste. The final book on the longlist is Vikramajit Ram’s Mansur (Pan Macmillan). Set in the 17th century, Ram’s book explores the conundrum its protagonist, Mansur, a painter is faced with as his “masterwork is conveyed safely to Verinag,” a town in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.

All in all, the prize in its sixth year running offers a promising longlist to be savoured by literature lovers as they, along with an array of writers and translators, wait with bated breath to find who shall take the coveted trophy and prize money home.