JCB Prize

JCB Prize for Literature is an Indian literary award established in 2018.[1] It is awarded annually with 2,500,000 (US$30,000) prize to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. The winners will be announced each November with shortlists in October and longlists in September.[1] It has been called "India's most valuable literature prize".[2] Rana Dasgupta is the founding Literary Director of the JCB Prize.[3] In 2020, Mita Kapur was appointed as the new Literary Director.[4]

JCB Prize
TypeLiterary award
Awarded forDistinguished work of fiction by an Indian author
Sponsored byJCB
CountryIndia
Reward(s)2,500,000 (US$30,000)
Established2018
First awarded2018
Highlights
Total awarded5
First winnerBenyamin (2018)
Most recent winnerPerumal Murugan (2023)
Websitewww.thejcbprize.org

The JCB Literature Foundation was established to maintain the award. It is funded by the English construction manufacturing group JCB. Publishers are allowed, per imprint, to enter two novels originally written in English and two novels translated into English from another language.[1]

Honourees

Winners indicated with a blue ribbon ( ).

Benyamin won the prize for the year 2018 for his novel Jasmine Days, originally written in Malayalam and translated into English by Shahnaz Habib.

2018

The inaugural JCB Prize longlist was announced in September 2018.[5][6] The 5-member shortlist was announced October 2018.[7] The winner was announced October 25, 2018.[2]

2019

The longlist was announced September 2019.[8][9] The five-member shortlist was announced November 2019.[10] The winner was announced November 5, 2019.[11]

S. Hareesh won the prize for the year 2020 for his novel Moustache, originally written in Malayalam and translated into English by Jayasree Kalathi.

2020

The longlist was announced in September, 2020.[12][13] The shortlist was announced on 25 September 2020.[14] The winner was announced on November 7, 2020.[15]

M. Mukundan won the prize for the year 2021 for his novel Delhi: A Soliloquy, originally written in Malayalam and translated into English by Fathima EV and Nandakumar K.

2021

The longlist was announced in September, 2021.[16][17] The shortlist was announced on October 4, 2021.[18][19] The winner was announced on November 13, 2021.[20]

2022

Khalid Jawed won the prize for the year 2022 for his novel The Paradise of Food, originally written in Urdu and translated into English by Baran Farooqi.

The longlist was announced on 3 September 2022.[21] The shortlist was announced on 21 October 2022. For the first time in five years, all five books on the shortlist were translated books.[22][23][24] The winner was announced on 19 November 2022.[25]

2023

Khalid Jawed won the prize for the year 2022 for his novel The Paradise of Food, originally written in Urdu and translated into English by Baran Farooqi.
  • Tejaswini Apte-Rahm, The Secret of More
  • Manoranjan Byapari, The Nemesis (Translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy)
  • Perumal Murugan, Fire Bird (Translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan)
  • Vikramjit Ram, Mansur
  • Manoj Rupda, I Named My Sister Silence (Translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar)

References