Indian literature

Sukrita Paul Kumar recently took over as guest editor of Sahitya Akademi’s literary journal, Indian Literature, a 200-page print magazine, which appears every two months. It is perhaps India’s oldest literary journal carrying translations from 23 Indian languages into English (besides original writing in the language). While it features prose and poems, Indian Literature also devotes a number of pages to scholarly essays and scripts of short plays. An issue of IE sells for Rs100. As the new guest editor, Sukrita Paul…

Bestselling author Chetan Bhagat, who has had his fair share of criticism by readers and writers of literary novels, says that there is a lot of "elitism" in Indian literary circles. He asserted that "there are no benchmarks in India" and that he doesn't have to prove his credentials to anybody. "When I began writing, the entire (publishing) industry was focussed on literary kind of books, books that are seen by literature experts as having a certain elitist language. Those were the kinds of books being published,…

The first outing of the JCB Prize for Literature is underway and the shortlist for top 5 has been announced. At an intimate conference held in a bookstore in Delhi, two members of the jury – writers Arshia Sattar and Vivek Shanbhag along with JCB Literary Director and author Rana Dasgupta. Out of entries sent by 42 publishers, the jury shortlisted five of what they felt were the best works in terms of diversity of ideas, storytelling and the ability of the book to compel readers to read till the end and remember it…