Debutant author Madhuri Vijay could be in for a triple

Indian American writer Madhuri Vijay, whose debut novel "The Far Field", which has won the $25,000 JCB Prize for Literature 2019, could be in for a triple as she has been named in the Jury shortlist in the fiction category for the 17th edition of the Crossword Book Awards, administered by India's largest book retail chain.

She has also been named in the shortlist for the Rs 25,000 DSC Prize for Literature, the winner of which will be announced on the concluding day of the Nepal Literature Festival at Pokhara on December 16.

Madhuri is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, Narrative Magazine and Salon, among other publications.

Born and raised in Bengaluru, Madhuri now lives in Hawaii where she teaches in a school.

Noted historian Ramachandra Guha's "Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World" features in the non-fiction shortlist. Perumal Murugan's twin novels, "Lonely Harvest" and "Trial By Silence" feature in the translations shortlist as does Manoranjan Byapari's "Gunpowder In The Air". Both authors had made it to the JCB shortlist.

The following is the Jury shortlist in four categories:

Fiction:

* The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay (Fourth Estate India)

* Ambiguity Machines, and Other Stories by Vandana Singh (Zubaan; First edition)

* Milk Teeth by Amrita Mahale (Context)

* Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup (HarperCollins India)

* The Blue Lotus: Myths and Folktales of India by Meena Arora Nayak (Aleph Book Company)Non-fiction:

* Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World by Ramachandra Guha (Penguin Allen Lane)

* Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to Our Times by Rajmohan Gandhi (Aleph Book Company)

* One Foot on the Ground: A Life Told Through the Body by Shanta Gokhale (Speaking Tiger Publishing Private Limited)

* The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women's Cricket in India by Sidhanta Patnaik & Karunya Keshav (Westland Sport)

* The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind by Raghuram Rajan (HarperCollins India)Children's Books:

* A Cloud Called Bhura: Climate Champions to the Rescue by Bijal Vachharajani (Author) and Aindri C. (Illustrator) (Taking Cub/Speaking Tiger)

* All of Me by Venita Coelho (Harper's Child)

* Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Author) and Krishna Bala Shenoi (Illustrator) (Speaking Tiger Publishing Private Limited)

* Machher Jhol: Fish Curry by Richa Jha (Author, Editor) and Sumanta Dey (Illustrator) (Pickle Yolk Books; First edition)

* Year of the Weeds by Siddhartha Sarma (Duckbill Books and Publications Pvt Ltd)

Translations:

* Lonely Harvest and Trial by Silence by Perumal Murugan (Author) and Aniruddh Vasudevan (Translator) (Penguin Ramdom House)

* Gunpowder In The Air by Manoranjan Byapari (Author) and Arunava Sinha (Translator) (Eka)

* Freedom Fables: Satires and Political Writings by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Author) and Kalyani Dutta (Translator) (Zubaan)

* Diary of a Malayali Madman by N. Prabhakaran (Author) and Jayasree Kalathil (Translator) (Harper Perennial India)

* This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar's Tale: Two Anti-Novels by Subimal Misra and (A.V. Ramaswamy (Translator) (Eka)

The jury this year includes Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, Deepak Dalal, Namita Gokhale, Arshia Sattar, M. Asauddin, Mukund Padmanabhan, Janice Pariat, Somak Ghoshal, Vivek Tejuja, Naresh Fernandes, Kaveree Bamzai and Rohan Murty.

The Crossword Book Awards will be held on January 14, 2020.

Previous winners of the Crossword Jury awards include Karan Johar, Shashi Tharoor, Ruskin Bond, Soha Ali Khan, Benyamin.

( With inputs from IANS )