Tag: JCB Prize for Literature

“The Paradise of Food” is the fourth translation to win the award and the first work in Urdu. Khalid Jawed also received the Prize trophy, a sculpture by Delhi artist duo Thukral and Tagra, entitled ‘Mirror Melting’…reports Asian Lite News

Khalid Jawed’s “The Paradise of Food”, described as “a brutal and mesmerizing account of the contemporary body, home and nation told through the food and kitchen” and published by Juggernaut, was declared the winner of the Rs 25 lakh JCB Prize For Literature 2022, India’s richest literary award for contemporary fiction by an Indian writer.

The winner was announced on Friday by JCB Chairman Lord Anthony Bamford virtually during the hybrid event where the trophy was handed over to the winning author by Sunil Khurana, Chief Operating Officer, JCB India, and Jury Chair AS Panneerselvan.

“The Paradise of Food” is the fourth translation to win the award and the first work in Urdu. Khalid Jawed also received the Prize trophy, a sculpture by Delhi artist duo Thukral and Tagra, entitled ‘Mirror Melting’.

The book was selected by a panel of five judges, including Amitabha Bagchi, Dr. J Devika, Janice Pariat and Rakhee Balaram. Jury members were unanimous in their praise for “The Paradise of Food”.

Panneerselvan described the book as a “celebration of human spirit, hope, loss, aspirations, and anxiety. It is a fine artistic achievement where aesthetics negotiates a difficult political trajectory that is haunting our country. The carnivalesque element makes this a modern fable”.

Said Janice Pariat: “This rare, beautiful book achieves, with exquisite, startling, singing prose, what few others have in recent and not-so-recent-years a microscopic yet epic exploration of humanity in all its ugliness and beauty, its cruelty and kindnesses, its silliness and wisdom. I was left amazed, enthralled, thrilled.”

Amitabha Bagchi said: “This singular and moving book shines a scintillating light on the violence at the heart of human civilization. The language contains several beautiful and unusual formulations that are a literary achievement by both the author and the extremely skilled translator. A literary landmark in a less celebrated genre of Urdu’s grand literary tradition, this work deserves to be widely read in India and beyond.”

Dr. J Devika said the book “works like a powerful ice-pick in the winter of the civilizational crisis that has engulfed the countries of South Asia. And it does this by mobilising the poetic powers of Urdu, placing liberation above nation-building, which we think is the work of a novel. The translation is perfect and inspired”.

Rakhee Balaram said: “A book of indescribable brilliance, (it) blazes a trail and redefines the contemporary Indian novel. Beauty and horror, sacred and profane, the book attracts and repels us as we turn each page. Our understanding of the personal and political intersect through the food and kitchen in the most unforgettable ways.”

Khalid Jawed is one of today’s leading Urdu novelists. He is the author of fifteen works of fiction and non-fiction, and is a recipient of the Katha Award, the Upendranath Ashk Award and the UP Urdu Academy Award. He is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

Baran Farooqi is a professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia University. She is the acclaimed translator of “The Colours of My Heart”, a selection of poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

ALSO READ-Success story of first Muslim female neurosurgeon in India

The longlist was chosen from a vast range of submissions by writers from sixteen states writing in eight languages including English, published between 1st August 2021 and 31st July 2022…reports Asian Lite News

The 5th edition of the longlist is announced for the 2022 JCB Prize for Literature. The list of ten novels was selected by a panel of five judges: A.S. Panneerselvan, (Chair) journalist and editor, Amitabha Bagchi, author; Rakhee Balaram, author, and academician; Dr. J. Devika, translator, historian, and academician; and Janice Pariat, author.

The longlist for 2022 is dominated by 6 translations. Amidst titles in Bengali and Malayalam, titles in Urdu, Hindi, and Nepali have been featured in the longlist for the first time. A truly diverse representation of what Indian fiction has to offer, the 2022 longlist brings forth stories from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Kalimpong, Punjab, Kolkata, Kerala, and the heartland.

The longlist was chosen from a vast range of submissions by writers from sixteen states writing in eight languages including English, published between 1st August 2021 and 31st July 2022.

Commenting on the longlist for 2022 and the overall reading experience, A.S. Panneerselvan, Chair of the jury observed, “This year’s deliberation to select the novels for the JCB prize for the 2022-long list was an enriching experience. It was a rich collection, the translations from different languages showed how writers were pushing the linguistic and creative boundaries to document our lives. These ten novels are in a sense a metaphor of contemporary India, where each language is permitted to shine; its intrinsic beauty is not subsumed by the other.”

The 2022 longlist are:

Rohzin by Rahman Abbas, translated from Urdu by Sabika Abbas Naqvi (Vintage Books, 2022)

Imaanby ManoranjanByapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha(EKA, 2021)

Escaping the Land by Mamang Dai (Speaking Tiger, 2021)

Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed, translated from Urdu by Baran Farooqi (Juggernaut, 2022)

Song of the Soil by ChudenKabimo, translated from Nepali by AjitBaral(Rachna Books, 2021)

Spirit Nights by EasterineKire (Simon &Schuster, 2022)

Crimson Spring by Navtej Sarna (Aleph Book Company, 2022)

The Odd Book of Baby Names by Anees Salim (Penguin Hamish Hamilton, 2021)

Tomb of Sandby Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell(Penguin Random House India, 2022)

Valli by Sheela Tomy, translated from Malayalam by JayasreeKalathil (Harper Perennial, 2022)



The JCB Prize for Literature is now in its fifth year, and the 2018 Prize was granted to Benyamin for his Jasmine Days, which was translated from Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib. Madhuri Vijay won the prize in 2019 for her film The Far Field. The Prize was awarded in 2020 to S. Hareesh for his Moustache, which was translated from Malayalam by JayasreeKalathil, and in 2021 to M.Mukundan for Delhi: A Soliloquy, which was translated by Fathima E.V. and Nandakumar K.

Talking about the journey of the JCB Prize for Literature and the support it has had from the industry, MitaKapur, Literary Director, said, “The JCB Prize is chuffed with pride to announce a Longlist of ten books that are bracing, vigorous, transformative, experimental in voice and story. Elemental to storytelling, each book takes soaring flights of imagination even as it is strongly rooted in India. The Prize enters its fifth year, marking 50 Long-listed titles that catch the pulse of our literary traditions. This journey, of course, would be incomplete without the publishers who bring these stories to light, the bookstores, online and offline, that give them a platform, and the readers who open themselves to the new worlds these books create.”

The JCB Prize for Literature is awarded each year to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer. The jury will announce the shortlist of five titles in October. The winner of the Rs 25-lakh JCB Prize for Literature will be announced on 19th November. If the winning work is a translation, the translator will receive an additional Rs 10 lakh. Each of the 5 shortlisted authors will receive Rs 1 lakh; if a shortlisted work is a translation, the translator will receive Rs 50,000.

ALSO READ-‘My priorities made sense to no one but me’