Indian writer an Jeet Thayil's first novel Narcopolis, described as a compelling tale of Mumbai's hazy world of opium addiction, has made it to the six-author shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2012 announced on Tuesday.
Thayil's Narcopolis was part of a shortlist of six works which included Jamil Ahmed's The Wandering Falcon, Tahmima Anam's The Good Muslim, Amitava Ghosh's River of Smoke, Mohammed Hanif's Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, Uday Prakash's The Walls of Delhi (translated into English by Jason Grunebaum).
Indian author Jeet Thayil's debut novel 'Narcopolis' is among five other works shortlisted on Wednesday for the $30,000 Man Asian Literary Prize.
Kerala-born Thayil, a former India Abroad/rediff.com staffer, is the only Indian writer in this year's long-list that includes known writers such as Will Self and Hilary Mantel.
Indian author Jeet Thayil's debut novel on the dark underside of Mumbai's opium dens is in race for this year's prestigious Man Booker prize, which British authors Will Self and Hilary Mantel are said to be the favourites to win.
Thayil, the author of 'Narcopolis' and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, will join his fellow judges to look for the best works of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK and Ireland between May 2019 and April 2020.
Muslim groups on Wednesday softened their stand over the visit of Jeet Thayil, who read excerpts from banned book of Salman Rushdie during Jaipur Literature Festival last year, saying they have no objection provided the act is not repeated.
Leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on Wednesday demanded that "controversial authors" be kept away from the Jaipur Literature Festival in the PinkCity.
Indian writers Jeet Thayil, Anjali Joseph and Benyamin were on Tuesday named in the Man Asian Literary Prize longlist of 15 authors which also figure Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk.
Kavita Srivastava, national secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, has revealed that six complaints have been registered against four authors: Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi, besides the organisers of the Jaipur Literture Festival, for hurting religious sentiments and conspiracy.
Three Indian writers are in the running for the $50,000 (about Rs 27,50,000) DSC South Asian literature prize given to the best novel thematically linked to the South Asian region.
Author-journalist Naresh Fernandes has won the 2012 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize for Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age, an account of the city's thriving music scene between the 30s and 60s.
The agony of waiting for Salman Rushdie, words of wisdom from Ben Okri and Amish Tripathi and a rather strange interaction with a Muslim activist who refuses to name the author he's protesting against. That was the second last day of the Jaipur Literature Festival, reports Abhishek Mande.
The Salman Rushdie row refused to die down on Sunday with a police complaint being filed against the four authors who read out portions from the controversial author's banned book Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
The Booker long-list nomination came as a surprise to Kerala-born poet-novelist Jeet Thayil who says his selected novel Narcopolis, which talks of opium dens and heroin addiction in Mumbai, is a secret history of the city.
The Shakti Bhatt Foundation announces the 2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize shortlist:
An upcoming production for a new opera by Jeet Thayil (Libretto) and Edward Rushton (Music), opening in India in Autumn 2009 and subsequently in Switzerland is looking for singers who enjoy acting, or actors who enjoy singing.
Coffee shops support a huge and growing workforce that cannot or will not be tethered to that piece of real estate that we all recognise as a formal office.
The Oscar nominations: Heptanesia Mumbaikar.
In a new letter issued on Monday, October 7, the eminent personalities questioned how writing an open letter to the prime minister could be called "an act of sedition".
The Vasundhara Raje government nominated the controversial sculptor and 11 others as the members of the governing board of Jaipur's Jawahar Kala Kendra on November 16.
Six books were nominated for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize this year. The books in contention for this year's cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and trophy are: Boats on Land by Janice Pariat, India Becoming by Akash Kapur, The King's Harvest by Chetan Raj Shreshta, The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, Foreign by Sonora Jha and a pleasant kind of heavy and other stories by aranyani.
Indian writer Anuradha Roy on Saturday won the prestigious $50,000 (Rs 33.89 lakh) DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for her novel Sleeping on Jupiter at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka.
'Everywhere Anil Dharker went, he assembled teams of talented people, gave them opportunities, then got out of the way and allowed them to flourish.' Meenakshi Shedde remembers a very special editor.
Judges Kamila Shamsie, Rohini Mohan and Margaret Mascarenhas will announce the winner in November.
The eighth edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival kicked off on Wednesday to a grand start with a bevy of authors, poets, Nobel Laureates along with some Bollywood celebrities, trooping in to the pink city to participate in one of Asia's biggest literary jamboree.
She quit her career in financial services to pursue her passion for writing.
Reticent author Cyrus Mistry on Saturday beat off stiff competition from five other writers to become the fourth winner of the $50,000 DSC prize for South Asian literature for his book "Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer".
The going has never been easy for author Cyrus Mistry, who suffers from a nervous disorder. The reclusive author, who bagged the prestigious South Asian literature award, talks openly to P B Chandra about his illness and how writing has helped him cope with it.
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