New Delhi: The 2021 JCB Prize longlist that was announced on Monday, September 6, is dominated by debut novels with six out of the 10 nominated books being written by first time authors.The debut works on the list include A Death in Sonagachhi by Rijula Das, What We Know About Her by Krupa Ge, Name Place Animal Thing by Daribha Lyndem, The Plague Upon Us by Shabir Ahmed Mir, Gods and Ends by Lindsay Pereira, and The Dharma Forest by Keerthik Sasidharan.The prize carrying an amount of Rs 25 lakh is awarded each year to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer. It is the most expensive Indian award for writing.The list also features three works of translation Anti-Clock by V.J. James, Delhi: A Soliloquy by M. Mukundan, and The Man Who Learnt to Fly but Could Not Land by Thachom Poyil Rajeevan. All three have been translated from Malayalam.The longlist was chosen from a wide range of submissions by writers from sixteen states writing in multiple languages published between August 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021.The jury of five judges included author and literary translator Sara Rai (Chair), designer and art historian Annapurna Garimella, author and translator Shahnaz Habib, journalist and editor Prem Panicker, and writer and podcaster Amit Varma.According to the jury, the books on the longlist were a reflection of the times, and prominently featured themes of self-reflection, duality and morality.“We were after well-written and well-edited books, those that transformed you in subtle ways by providing a new perspective on contemporary Indian reality even if the work was one of historical fiction.“We found that the books on the 2021 longlist not only met these criteria, but also passed the final test they were unforgettable and stayed with us long after we had finished reading them,” Rai, chair of the jury, said.Also on the longlist is Asoca by Irwin Allan Sealy.IA Seally receiving the Padma Shri Award in 2012. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/GOILiterary director Mita Kapur said that they were dedicated to look for “great literature beyond the narrow confines of genre”.“What we were looking for in the submissions this year, I think, was a sense of the world beyond ourselves. We reached out to publishers, big and small, across the country, working with books originally in English and translated from Indian languages.“The books we received surprised us by showing us multiple ways of living and being, taking us out of the spaces our bodies and minds were confined to,” Kapur said.The shortlist of five titles will be announced on October 4. Each of the five selected authors will receive Rs 1 lakh, and if a translated work makes it to the shortlist, the translator will also receive Rs 50,000.The final winner of the Rs 25 lakh Prize will be announced on November 13. In case the winning entry is a translation, the translator will be awarded Rs 10 lakh.
