Shehan awarded prestigious South Asian literary prize for Chinaman
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012 was awarded yesterday to Singaporebased Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for his book Chinaman (Random House, India), a novel that won him Sri Lanka’s highest literary prize, the Gratiaen Award in 2008.
The US $50,000 DSC Prize 2012 was awarded to Karunatilaka at a ceremony attended by renowned authors, media persons and others at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the biggest literary festivals in the region.
The DSC Prize along with a trophy was awarded to Shehan Karunatilaka by Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Queen Mother of Bhutan.
Six authors had been Shortlisted for the DSC Prize 2012 from which the winner was announced yesterday. The other shortlisted authors were U.R. Ananthamurthy: Bharathipura (Oxford University Press, India, translated by Susheela Punitha), Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, translated by Manisha Chaudhry), Usha K.R: Monkey-man (Penguin/penguin India), Tabish Khair: The Thing About Thugs (Fourth Estate/harpercollins-india), and Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told (Viking/penguin India).
The DSC Prize was judged by a jury chaired by Ira Pande along with Alastair Niven, Fakrul Alam , Faiza S Khan and Marie Brenner. The Shortlist was announced in October 2011 at the DSC South Asian Literature Festival in UK. (Netindian News Network).