11 Indians in Asian 'Booker' list

NEW DELHI: Eleven Indian authors have found a place in the long list of the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize 2008 considered by many as the Asian Booker.

The Indians in the reckoning are Tulsi Badrinath ("Melting Love"), Anjum Hasan ("Neti, Neti"), Daisy Hasan ("The To-Let House"), Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi ("Lost Flamingoes of Bombay"), Amit Varma ("My Friend, Sancho"), Sarayu Srivatsa ("The Last Pretence"), Kavery Nambisan ("The Story that Must Not be Told"), Sumana Roy ("Love in the Chicken's Neck"), Vaibhav Saini ("On the Edge of Pandemonium"), Rupa Krishnan ("Something Wicked This Way Comes") and Salma ("Midnight Tales").

The 21 unpublished works of Asian fiction in English will be reviewed and evaluated by the judges, who will announce a shortlist of works in October 2008. The winner will be announced on November 13 at an awards ceremony in Hong Hong the administrative committee for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize said in a statement.

The Man Asian Literary Prize, sponsored by the Man Group which sponsors the Booker Prize as well, is open to works of fiction in English (original or in translation) written by a living person of Asian origin that have not been published at the time of submission.

The inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007 was awarded to Chinese writer Jiang Rong for his bestseller "Wolf Totem."

The judging panel comprises Adrienne Clarkson, former governor general of Canada (Chair); Nicholas Jose, writer, scholar and former cultural counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China; and Pankaj Mishra, acclaimed Indian writer and thinker.

The long list was chosen from submissions received from all over Asia. The largest single group of submissions was from India, followed by the Philippines.

The Prize received submissions from well-established as well as first-time authors, and entries included translated works as well as works originally in English.

Peter Gordon, executive director of the Man Asian Literary Prize, said: "The long list, which contains unpublished works from throughout the region from Japan to Pakistan, demonstrates once again the depth and diversity of Asian contemporary writing. We were pleased that many of the works on last year's long list were published or are scheduled for publication, and we hope that highlighting Asian writers will have a similar effect this year and in the years to come."

The award aims to recognise the best of new Asian literature and to bring it to the attention of the world literary community.