At Scroll.in Arunava Sinha worries that in India: 'Publishers are not putting out enough 'good' books to ensure variety on literary award shortlists', in The DSC Prize shortlist points to an impending crisis of literary fiction.
Once you stop laughing -- no, go ahead; take your time; it took me a while too -- you can see that he does sort of have a point. And apparently the situation in India is particularly bad:
(Meanwhile, it's interesting to note that the one Indian publisher to break through internationally -- with a very ambitious and uncompromising program -- is one specializing in translation -- and mainly of the 'big' European languages, at that -- Seagull Books.)
Once you stop laughing -- no, go ahead; take your time; it took me a while too -- you can see that he does sort of have a point. And apparently the situation in India is particularly bad:
Frankly, it's come to a point in Indian publishing where an informed reader can predict a literary award shortlist with a high degree of accuracy, simply because there are so few to choose from.And there's something to his diagnosis:
The trouble is, by responding to the market instead of trying to restructure it, publishers are further reducing the space for anything other than commercial or genre fiction in India.But hoping publishers will restructure the market ... yeah, that doesn't sound very realistic.
(Meanwhile, it's interesting to note that the one Indian publisher to break through internationally -- with a very ambitious and uncompromising program -- is one specializing in translation -- and mainly of the 'big' European languages, at that -- Seagull Books.)
