Katha Prize Stories: Volume 2

Stories that explore an exciting range of themes and situations from the fantastic to the quietly realistic, the enigmatic to the expected, the melodramatic to the humorous of the nineteen stories in this collection, two have been originally written in English and the rest are sensitive translations from twelve regional languages.

The translated stories are from Asomiya, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The Hindu

Apparently, the short story is pulsating with life in this land of epics. This heartening fact comes out loud and clear from this captivating collection of stories from various cultural zones of the country …

… the pioneering nature of this serious effort to promote inter-culture dialogue through the English language. For, the Indian ethos and the vigour and intensity of the writers shine through this collection … each writer in his own way opens the reader’s eyes to yet another shape of reality, making him thirst for more.
– Rakesh Sharma

Indian Review of Books

Katha is a welcome venture into Indian fiction. English readers should encourage it by buying copies and looking forward to a steady flow of more Katha issues.

The Hindu
(March 30, 1993)

The first volume of Katha stories was a difficult act to follow, and the first thing that must be said about the present volume is that is not an unworthy successor. The range is quite wide, from the fantastic to the realistic, from the melodramatic to the humorous. Among writers represented are a Jnanpith winner, and two Sahitya Akademi awardees.

– S Krishnan

The authors

M T Vasudevan Nair
Gopinath Mohanty
Shyamal Gangopadhyay
Rukun Advani
Subrabharatimanian
Zamiruddin Ahmad
Vivek Shanbag
Milind Bokil
N S Madhavan
Jayamohan
Atulananda Goswami
Mohan Parmar
Rentala Nageswara Rao
Bhupen Khakhar
Dhruva Shukla
Manju Kak
Asha Bage
Vaidehi
Bimal Kar

The Translators

D Krishna Ayyar and Raji Subramaniam
Sachidananda Mohanty and Sudhakar Marathe
Shampa Banerjee
S K Shanti
M Asaduddin and Manju Kak
Ramachandra Sharma
Asha Damle and Arvind Dixit
Sujatha Devi
M Vijayalakshmi
Anjana Desai
Rani Sarma
Ganesh N Devy
Gillian Wright
Padma Sharma
Enakshi Chatterjee

The Nominating Editors & Journals

Assamese: Pankaj Thakur (Krantik)
Bangla: Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay (Bibhab, Desh Weekly)
English: Nissim Ezekiel
Hindi: Nirmal Verma (Saptahik Hindustan)
Gujarati: Ganesh N Devy (Parishkrit Varta, Gadyaparva)
Kannada: D R Nagaraj (Lankesh Patrike)
Malayalam: Sujatha Devi (India Today, Matrubhoomi Weekly)
Marathi: Vijaya Rajadhyaksha (Mauj, Shree Vatsa)
Oriya: Sachidananda Mohanty (Sharashjya)
Tamil: Sundara Ramaswamy (Manoasai, Subhamangala)
Telugu: Vakati Panduranga Rao (Andhra Prabha Illustrated Weekly)
Urdu: Gopi Chand Narang (Saughat)

Edited by: Geeta Dharmarajan

Publishers: Katha
Cover Design: Taposhi Ghoshal
Colours: Arvinder Chawla
Logo Design: Crowquill
Category: Katha Prize Stories
Statistics: 5.5" x 8" 288 pages
ISBN 81-85586-09-8 [PB]
Price: Rs 250 [India and the subcontinent only]

Buy now!

Katha Prize Stories: Volume 1

KPS 1 highlights the inherent heterogeneity of contemporary India – an India constantly negotiating contradictions and coming together. These fourteen award winning stories both create and break stereotypes. There is no attempt here to yoke together “universal themes” or “basic conflict,” yet brought serendipitously together is a galaxy of master writers who make for powerful and unusual reading.

This volume features fourteen award-winning stories whose common claim is excellence. The languages featured are Asomiya, Bangla, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Economic Times
(Sunday, August11, 1991)

The world of the storyteller.

Katha is a collection of short stories in English translation from different Indian languages including one written in English. Ten Indian languages are represented, with Punjabi, Oriya and Gujarati being excluded, and there are two stories from Kannada and Malayalam. The stories from the different languages have been selected by Nominating Editors who seem to have chosen the translators as well. The material has been culled from journals in the various languages published over a period of three years 1987-1990. The names of the journals have been listed at the end of the book under the pretentious title “select bibliography”. They are called “Prize Stories” on the basis of the Nominators/Editors own selection …

The translations read well and the depth of understanding and delineation of human character makes one realize how much the educated Indian reader is missing by confining himself to the English language. Some stories are outstanding, like the Urdu “Dream Images” (by Surendera Prakash translated by M Asaduddin). “Room by the Tubewell” (in Bengali by Sarat Kumar, translated by Enakshi Chatterji) has the diverting theme of a pacemaker being stolen from a dead body. The Tamil story “Reflowering” (by Sunder Ramaswami, translated by S Krishnan) has the down to earth relish of Tamil Nadu. These are some of the stories which impressed this reviewer but by and large the stories read well, whether or not they deserved “prizes” … the range of craftsmanship and technique is amazing, ranging as they do from surrealism to stream of consciousness and even a bit of magic realism.

– V Abdulla.

The Economic Times
(Sunday, August 11, 1991)

The conception and execution of the Katha Prize Stories series surely represents a unique and special moment in Indian publishing history … What has emerged out of this conscious and well-planned exercise is a fascinatingly supple range of short fiction which, though it does not claim to be representative, brings an intimate, exciting and live touch to what could otherwise have been a dry, academic exercise.

What strikes one is the gentle manner in which the venture challenges the premises of the mainstream publishing industry which believes only in grabbing, monopolizing and exploiting markets in a manipulative way, without generating processes within it that can be participative and creative. The Katha experiment is certainly an intervention, which contributes towards shifting the focus of publishing concepts from insular paranoia to more collaborative processes that can enter laterally in our value systems. Simultaneously, by the sheer sincerity of its purpose, it highlights the inherent laziness of publishing monopolies who have no need for engaging in any productive homework, who will never take trouble to interact with readers at any level other than that of mere commerce …

This first Katha anthology is only the beginning of several more to follow and is sure to provide fresh impetus to readers for a deeper engagement with the rich plurality of our own regional literatures.

– SM

The Authors

Purna Chandra Tejasvi
Bhupendranarayan Bhattacharyya
Swami
Dilip Purushottam Chitre
Ashok Srinivasan
Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay
Sara Joseph
Surendra Prakash
Madhurantakam Rajaram
Rekha
Fakir Muhammed Katpadi
T Padmanabhan
Arun Mhatre
Sundara Ramaswamy

The Translators

K Raghavendra Rao
Ranjita Biswas
Suhas Gole
Enakshi Chatterjee
Ayyappa Paniker
M Asaduddin
R S Sudarshanam
Ruth Vanita
P A Kolharkar
S Krishnan

The Nominating Editors & Journals

Assamese: Indira Goswami (Sutradhar)
Bangla: Enakshi Chatterjee (Jugantor)
English: Vijayalakshmi Quereshi
Hindi: Rajendra Yadav (Hans)
Kannada: Raghavendra Rao (Kathegallu-The Kannada Sahitya Parishad, Sannekatha - Karnataka Sahitya Akademi)
Malayalam: Ayyappa Paniker (Mathrubhoomi Weekly, Kalakaumudi)
Marathi: Vilas Sarang (Gulmohar, Anushthub)
Tamil: S Krishnan (India Today)
Telugu: Vakati Panduranga Rao (Andhra Prabha Illustrated Weekly, Andhra Jyoti Illustrated Weekly)
Urdu: Anisur Rahman (Zehn-e-Jadeed)

Edited by

Rimli Bhattacharya
Geeta Dharmarajan

Publishers: Katha
Cover Design: Taposhi Ghoshal

Colours: Arvinder Chawla
Logo Design: Crowquill

Category: Katha Prize Stories

Statistics: 5.5" x 8" 192 pages
ISBN 81-85586-00-4 [PB]
Price: Rs 200 [India and the subcontinent only]

Buy now!

Katha Prize Stories: An Introduction

The Katha Prize Stories is an annual anthology of stories from various regional languages in translation. Every December Katha also gives out awards for the best short stories published in the preceding year in different languages. Each author receives the Katha Award for Creative Fiction and the editor of the regional language journal that first published the award-winning story, the Katha Journal Award. Each translator gets the Katha Award for Translation and the AK Ramanujan Award goes to a translator who can, with felicity, translate between two or more Indian languages. A category for oral literature has been introduced this year to celebrate the living tradition of storytelling in our country. The award winning entries are then published in the Katha Prize Stories (KPS). Thirteen such volumes have been published so far. Work on Volume Fourteen and Fifteen is under way.

From each language an eminent personality is chosen as our Nominating Editor. The Nominating Editor is then required to go through all the short stories published in the various journals and magazines in the previous year in a particular language and nominate three. The diverse tastes of editors of diverse magazines and journals ranging from a popular commercial weekly to a quiet small magazine can only add to the richness of the collection. In English, our Nominating Editor also considers unpublished stories. We always try to include as many languages as possible though the KPS series does not even try to be representative. We do not look for known writers necessarily but for Classics of a high literary quality that will stand the test of time.

The three nominated stories are then sent for rough translations. The story, which reads most powerfully in terms of language, style and content, is chosen. This is then sent for a final round of refined translation. After the story comes in to Katha, an intense round of editing is done on the story. Then it is sent to the writers and translators for their approval and suggestions to see that the translation has not deviated from the original in its essence or that there are no inadvertent deletions. These suggestions are incorporated into the story keeping in mind the house style. The same process of sending and getting the story back from the writers and translators for suggestions and alterations happens at least two or three times. Once the story takes its final shape, it is published in the Katha Prize Volume.

Check this space for details and media reviews for our collection!