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2023

LAST YEAR WINNER

Fire Bird

Fire Bird is a masterfully crafted tale of one man’s search for the elusive concept of permanence. Muthu has his world turned upside down when his father divides the family land, leaving him with practically nothing and causing irreparable damage to his family’s bonds.

The 2023 SHORTLIST

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The 2023 LONGLIST

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THE 2023 JURY

A distinguished jury from diverse backgrounds brings forth the Longlist, Shortlist and Winner of the JCB Prize for Literature, year on year.

Srinath Perur

Srinath Perur

Author and Translator (Chair)

Srinath Perur (Chair) is the author of the travelogue If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai. He has translated from Kannada the novel Ghachar Ghochar (by Vivek Shanbhag) and the memoir This Life at Play (by Girish Karnad). He writes on a variety of subjects including science, travel and books.
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Mahesh Dattani

Mahesh Dattani

Playwright and Stage Director

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, and mentor. His works as a playwright have been translated and performed in many languages across India and abroad.

For his anthology Final Solutions and Other Plays, Dattani received the Sahitya Akademi Award. His works as a director include an adaptation in English of Tagore's story Chokher Bali for Barnard College, Columbia University, an adaptation of Lorca's Blood Wedding for ICS Theatre, New Jersey, Snapshots of a Fervid Sunrise, written and directed by him.

Recently he worked with This is Not a Theatre Company in New York to write and direct an audio piece, A Little Drape of Heaven, which was picked by The New York Times as among the top five things to catch in New York.His film work as a writer and director includes Mango Souffle (2000) and Morning Raga (2003). He is the Artistic Director of Playpen Performing Arts Trust, a group dedicated to mentoring and producing new works for the theatre. He lives in Mumbai, India.

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Somak Ghoshal

Somak Ghoshal

Author, Critic and Learning Designer

Somak Ghoshal has worked in publishing and media with major Indian organizations for over 15 years, especially as a critic and book publisher. His work has appeared in Mint, HuffPost, The Telegraph, Open, The Hindu, The Voice of Fashion, Mekong Review, Index on Censorship, CNN Style, and other Indian and international publications. He is the author of two books for young readers, published by Penguin Random House and Pratham Books respectively. Currently, he works as a learning designer with an ed-tech organization.
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Kavery Nambisan

Kavery Nambisan

Author and Surgeon

Kavery Nambisan started her writing career with children’s books. Her adult novels include The Scent of Pepper, A Story that Must Not be Told and A Town Like Ours. Her non-fiction book A Luxury Called Health is her most recent work. She also contributes articles and essays to national newspapers and international anthologies. She went to Iowa University on an international writing fellowship; to Pakistan on a Fullbright and Iowa sponsored literary progamme; to Shanghai as a writer in residence with her late husband and poet Vijay Nambisan.

Kavery graduated in medicine from St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, did her higher surgical training in the UK and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. She has since built her career working as a surgeon in rural India including parts of Bihar, UP and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Kavery Nambisan lives and works in Kodagu.

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Swati Thiyagarajan

Swati Thiyagarajan

Conservation Journalist and Filmmaker

Swati Thiyagarajan is a multi-award winning conservation journalist who pioneered conservation and wildlife reporting for television in India . She is the former Environment Editor of NDTV and helmed and created one of their flagship shows Born Wild. She authored the book Born Wild, Journeys into the wild hearts of India and Africa. She is also a documentary filmmaker, her film The Animal Communicator has racked up over 8 million views on YouTube since 2012 and is available on Amazon Prime in the US and UK.

She was the Associate Producer on the Academy Award winning My Octopus Teacher and is at present working for the Sea Change Project in Cape Town.

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The JCB Prize in Videos

EXPLORE OUR JOURNAL

A Q&A with Manoranjan Byapari and V. Ramaswamy, author and translator of The Nemesis

The Nemesis is part of Manoranjan Byapari’s Chandal Jibon Trilogy. The second in the series, this novel like the first is translated by V. Ramaswamy. In this conversation the duo talk about the book, what influenced the writing and the translation, and bring forth some reading recommendations that are a must add to your TBR.

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“Every time he punches someone, I have the momentary, sanguine feeling of righting a wrong in the world.” A Q&A with Tanuj Solanki

Longlisted author Tanuj Solanki, on why his protagonist is not an anti-hero, and what influenced his book.

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A Q&A with Geet Chaurvedi and Anita Gopalan, author and translator of Simsim

Simsim is Geet Chaturvedi’s first novel, it is also Anita Gopalan’s first translation of a novel. The duo talk about the book, what influenced the writing and how the translation came to be, in this piece.

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“Shai was difficult to bring to life because so much of her experiences echoed mine” A Q&A with Janice Pariat

Longlisted author Janice Pariat, on the characters that make up her novel, their oneness with the natural worlds they inhabit, and story’tellers’who have inspired her.

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“I suppose we are chameleons of a sort, constantly adapting our writerly voices” A Q&A with Vikramajit Ram

Longlisted author Vikramajit Ram, on how his curiosity around the lives of those away from the spotlight, led him to Mansur.

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“The perpetual quest for home is felt by the modern immigrant too” A Q&A with Brinda Charry

Longlisted author Brinda Charry, talks about her protagonist Tony, the parallels she can draw with her own journey, and her next novel.

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