India's most prestigious literary award, JCB Prize for literature, discontinued

The JCB Prize for Literature, India’s most prestigious book award, appears to have been quietly discontinued, sparking concern across the literary community, including among writers, translators, and publishers.

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A person close to the award told PTI on Saturday that “it has shut down”, though there has been no official confirmation from the JCB Literature Foundation.

Established in 2018, the prize aimed to “celebrate Indian writing, and to help readers across the world discover the very best of contemporary Indian literature”. Following the awarding of the 2023 prize to English writer Upamanyu Chatterjee on November 23 last year, the foundation has remained silent. Its last social media post, on 27 November, congratulated Chatterjee for winning the Rs 25 lakh prize. Notably, the annual call for entries which typically opens in the first week of March did not take place this year. Malayalam author Benyamin, winner of the inaugural 2018 award for Jasmine Days (translated into English by Shahnaz Habib), described the development as “deeply disappointing”.