It’s quite the double whammy for Jahnavi Barua. Shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize for her novel Rebirth and now, little more than a month later, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book and Short Story Prize. “The publisher has to send the book in for the prize, for which they have an internal selection,” says Bengaluru-based Barua, who gave up her medical practice some years ago but states emphatically, “That’s not true. Medicine has nothing to do with my writing.”
Six Indian writers, including Barua and Rahul Bhattacharya, figure in the shortlist of the 2012 Commonwealth Book and Short Story Prizes; Barua, for her novel Rebirth, Bhattacharya for his The Sly Company of People Who Care and C.Y. Gopinath for The Book of Answers in the Commonwealth Book Prize category. Pakistan’s Jamil Ahmad (The Wandering Falcon) and Sri Lankan Shehan Karunatilaka (Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew) among 15 other authors also in the race. Indians in the shortlist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are Anushka Jasraj (Radio Story), Poile Sengupta (Ammulu) and Sreejith Sukumaran (Another Dull Day). The overall winner will be announced at the Hay Festival on June 8.