Amitav Ghosh and Jeet Thayil are among the 16 writers on the longlist for the $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced here on Tuesday.
Ghosh has been selected for River of Smoke; and Thayil for his debut novel Narcopolis.
Other prominent names from the subcontinent include Mohammed Hanif (Pakistan), and Tahmina Anam (Bangladesh).
The winner from a shortlist, to be revealed next month, will be announced at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013.
The jury, chaired by K. Satchidanandan, said the list represented “the richness and variety of fiction written around the life of South Asians or people of South Asian origin within and outside their own countries.”
Mr. Satchidanandan said the jury was “excited by the unprecedented response” from publishers. There were 81 entries from around the world “charmingly diverse in their theme and treatment and well aware of the political, cultural and psychological dimensions of life in the societies and people they were dealing with.”
