Danseuse Leela Samson heads JCB lit prize jury for 2020

Noted Bharatanatyam dancer former chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi and author Leela Samson will head the five-member jury for the Rs 25 lakh JCB Prize for Literature 2020.

Writer and translator Aruni Kashyap; cultural theorist and author Tejaswini Niranjana; playwright and director;Ramu Ramanathan and Deepika Sorabjee, head of the Arts & Culture portfolio at Tata Trusts, are the other members of the jury.

"The jury represents a diverse range of influential thinkers from a broad spectrum of creative fields to select the best offering of fiction from India in this year," a JCB Foundation statement said.

The jury will announce the longlist of ten titles on September 1, followed by the shortlist of five titles on September 25. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on November 7.

If the winning work is a translation, the translator will

be awarded an additional Rs 10 lakh. Each of the five shortlisted authors will receive Rs 1 lakh; if a shortlisted work is a translation, the translator will receive Rs 50,000.

"The JCB Prize for Literature has presented us with an amazing opportunity to award the most reflective, imaginative and persuasive piece of contemporary fiction writing in India.

I am delighted to embark upon this journey," jury chair Leela Samson said.