New Voyage

Written by Zehra Fatima • May 2010

Your idea of bliss is to wake up on a Monday morning knowing you haven't a single engagement for the entire week. You are cradled in a white paper cocoon tied up with typewriter ribbon." - Edna Ferber.

And what to say of the pleasures of such a week if one is to cheer one's favorite author to win amidst several others from all over the world. South Asia enjoyed a similar excitement on the eve of April 12 when not one but two of its writers won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010.

Delhi-based writer Rana Dasgupta's ‘Solo' won the Best Book prize from UK whereas Daniyal Mueenuddin from Pakistan won Best First Book for ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders'. This is the first major prize the two writers have won. As highly acclaimed new international authors, these two South Asian writers have now joined some of the biggest names in modern fiction in winning the Prize, including Louis de Bernieres, Vikram Seth and Andrea Levy.

Following a week of intense judging, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, organized by the Commonwealth Foundation and supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation, was held in the Indian city of New-Delhi. Eight finalists from different regions of the Commonwealth made it to the rigorous final stage. In its 24th year, the critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers' Prize offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to enhance their reputation. The Best First Book winner claims £5,000 while the writer of the Best Book wins £10,000.

South Asian authors, of late, have taken the world of literature by storm, making literary waves across the globe. These writers come from all ages and backgrounds and have embarked on a journey it seems, providing a good insight into the lives and happenings of the people of South Asia - a volatile region which has gained much of global attention in the recent years.

South Asia enjoys a diverse culture and so does the modern literature that is emerging here. South Asian writers whether they be Indians or Pakistanis, from Sri Lanka or Nepal, delve deeply into a wide variety of topics from political upheavals to personal accounts of the Diaspora and migrant issues, religious and ethnic conflicts to the simple day to day living in this part of the world.

Moreover, South Asian writers have not restricted themselves to a single form of writing. They explore the vast horizons of novel writing, take regular dips in short-story writing, maintain fiction characters and equally befriend factual findings to base their work on.

When it comes to English language fiction, although South Asia began to receive recognition in the latter part of the 20th century, pioneered by figures such as Bapsi Sidhwa, Sara Suleri, Hanif Kureshi, Aamer Hussein, Vikram Seth, Jagadish Gupta, Kamila Shamsie, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor to name just a few, it was at the start of this century that several young and potential South Asian writers gained much international attention after they started being short listed for several international awards.

Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid's debut novel ‘Moth Smoke' won a Betty Trask Award in 2000 whereas his second novel, ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist' was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. Uzma Aslam Khan from Pakistan was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for her novel, ‘Trespassing' in 2003. British-Pakistani writer Nadeem Aslam won the 2004 Kuriyama Prize for his second book, ‘Maps for Lost Lovers'. Similarly, Mohammed Hanif's debut novel ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes' was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award and even won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the year 2009 whereas Indian writer Kiran Desai's second novel, ‘The Inheritance of Loss', created a euphoria when it won the Man Booker Prize in 2006 and so did Jhumpa Lahiri's debut short story collection, ‘Interpreter of Maladies' which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000.

The South Asian writers are exceedingly and deservedly being recognized. The national and international awards heaped upon our authors, the outstanding number of books sold, the extensive marketing done by the media, and the flurry of optimism kindled by the past successes, big and small, suggest that the South Asian modern day literature has come of age and has secured a definitive place in world literature.

Just like a good book has no ending, the ship of South Asian literature also promises to sail a long voyage.