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Naqvi wins 1st S Asian Literature prize $50,000 For Pakistani author's debut novel
Shalini Umachandran, TNN, Jan 23, 2011, 03.51am IST
JAIPUR: You can usually spot a winner from the way he walks, and more importantly from the way people around him treat him.
Even before the first $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 was announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Saturday evening, it was obvious HM Naqvi had it in the bag.
It was there to see in the smiles of the directors of DSC Limited, the company that instituted the prize, and in host Kabir Bedi's hug, when the Karachi-based author strode onto the stage to read from his debut novel, Home Boy', about three young Pakistani in the US after 9/11.
"I feel wonderful to have won this prize, especially since Home Boy' was written at a time when I was destitute," said Naqvi, 36, after the ceremony. "I started the book in 2003 and completed it in 2007. During that time, I only made $11,000 net of taxes, teaching creative writing at Boston University. There was always an overdraft at the end of the month," he said.
The prize, introduced last year by infrastructure conglomerate DSC Limited, is awarded for works of fiction in English as well as translations that tell stories from the South Asian region. The author can be of any nationality or ethnicity, but the work should be based in the region. With a cash award of $50,000 and a citation, the prize comes close to the Booker.
Literary critic and chairperson of the jury Nilanjana S Roy said there was a fair amount of disagreement and debate before the book was selected from a short-list of six. "This book almost seemed like a graphic novel, there is so much raw energy, complexity and the characters typify the issues of a generation that can't go back home again," said Roy.
The jury comprising Roy, author Amitava Kumar, publisher Matthew Evans, columnist Ian Jack and writer Moni Mohsin selected six books from a long-list of 16 in October 2010. The other contenders for the prize were Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals', Musharraf Ali Farooqi's The Story of a Widow', Tania James' Atlas of Unknowns', Manju Kapur's The Immigrant' and Neel Mukherjee's A Life Apart'.
Like the other books on the short-list, Home Boy' is also an immigrant's tale of three young Pakistanis in New York City but his characters run into trouble after 9/11 when one of their friends go missing and the boys are arrested as suspected terrorists. "I am a storyteller not a political pundit, but I express my opinions through my books. Music and poetry influences the cadence of Home Boy'. The language is infused with hip-hop, rock, Salinger, Whitman, even Wizard of Oz to summon the bright lights of America," he said.
Naqvi wins 1st S Asian Literature prize $50,000 For Pakistani author's debut novel - The Times of India
Shalini Umachandran, TNN, Jan 23, 2011, 03.51am IST
JAIPUR: You can usually spot a winner from the way he walks, and more importantly from the way people around him treat him.
Even before the first $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 was announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Saturday evening, it was obvious HM Naqvi had it in the bag.
It was there to see in the smiles of the directors of DSC Limited, the company that instituted the prize, and in host Kabir Bedi's hug, when the Karachi-based author strode onto the stage to read from his debut novel, Home Boy', about three young Pakistani in the US after 9/11.
"I feel wonderful to have won this prize, especially since Home Boy' was written at a time when I was destitute," said Naqvi, 36, after the ceremony. "I started the book in 2003 and completed it in 2007. During that time, I only made $11,000 net of taxes, teaching creative writing at Boston University. There was always an overdraft at the end of the month," he said.
The prize, introduced last year by infrastructure conglomerate DSC Limited, is awarded for works of fiction in English as well as translations that tell stories from the South Asian region. The author can be of any nationality or ethnicity, but the work should be based in the region. With a cash award of $50,000 and a citation, the prize comes close to the Booker.
Literary critic and chairperson of the jury Nilanjana S Roy said there was a fair amount of disagreement and debate before the book was selected from a short-list of six. "This book almost seemed like a graphic novel, there is so much raw energy, complexity and the characters typify the issues of a generation that can't go back home again," said Roy.
The jury comprising Roy, author Amitava Kumar, publisher Matthew Evans, columnist Ian Jack and writer Moni Mohsin selected six books from a long-list of 16 in October 2010. The other contenders for the prize were Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals', Musharraf Ali Farooqi's The Story of a Widow', Tania James' Atlas of Unknowns', Manju Kapur's The Immigrant' and Neel Mukherjee's A Life Apart'.
Like the other books on the short-list, Home Boy' is also an immigrant's tale of three young Pakistanis in New York City but his characters run into trouble after 9/11 when one of their friends go missing and the boys are arrested as suspected terrorists. "I am a storyteller not a political pundit, but I express my opinions through my books. Music and poetry influences the cadence of Home Boy'. The language is infused with hip-hop, rock, Salinger, Whitman, even Wizard of Oz to summon the bright lights of America," he said.
Naqvi wins 1st S Asian Literature prize $50,000 For Pakistani author's debut novel - The Times of India
