JCB Prize for Literature 2023 Jury Announced

on Apr 12, 2023

The JCB Literary Foundation has named the jury for the JCB Prize for Literature 2023. The diverse entries will be judged by Mahesh Dattani, playwright and stage director; Somak Ghoshal, author, critic, and learning designer; Kavery Nambisan, author and surgeon; Swati Thiyagarajan, conservation journalist and filmmaker; and Srinath Perur, author and translator, as the leading literary prize enters its sixth year.

The jury's vast experience will aid in selecting a balanced voice as the finest fiction novel later this year. The JCB Literary Foundation has announced the award, sponsored by JCB India Ltd, the country's foremost producer of earthmoving and construction equipment.

"India speaks and reads in so many languages," Mita Kapur, literary director of the JCB Prize for Literature, remarked on the occasion. "The books that are submitted for the JCB Award are a real expression of the many Indias that exist within one." The jury for 2023 brings together vast experience from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, languages, creative genres, and modes of expression. With their same gaze and profound grasp of narrative, we are convinced that the judges will read, analyze, and identify jewels among the applications received this year."

The panel will read many Indian books before announcing the longlist of 10 titles (subject to modification) in September and the shortlist of five titles in October (also subject to change).

In November 2023, the winner will get a cash reward of Rs 25 lakh, and the translator will receive Rs 10 lakh if the winning title is a translation. Furthermore, each shortlisted book will be rewarded Rs 1 lakh, while translators will be awarded Rs 50,000.

"I am delighted to be part of the jury for the JCB Prize for Literature 2023," said Perur, who chaired the panel this year.

It is a chance to honor novels that speak to our times while also bringing to light works that may have gone unnoticed. In this sense, I applaud the efforts to encourage publishers to submit translations. It guarantees that the field accurately represents the breadth of Indian books published in English in the previous year. As a reader, I'm looking forward to discovering works that I would not have picked up otherwise and to collectively broadening our horizons - one of the things that literature does so brilliantly."

The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu original by Baran Farooqi and published by Juggernaut, received the JCB Award for Literature last year. The story is about food and how it may be the foundation of a modern body, household, and nation.

The JCB Literary Foundation also encourages inclusion in readership and has made the 2022 selected works digitally available in a way that may comfortably reach the visually challenged spectrum.