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One winner and two prize-winning finalists have been announced for this year’s Dhahan Prize for Punjabi Literature.
The annual book prize, which celebrates excellence in Punjabi fiction, was awarded to Jinder (Jalandhar, Punjab, India) for the short-story collection titled Safety Kit. The honour includes a $25,000 award, given during a ceremony in Surrey on Thursday.
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Two additional authors, Shahzad Aslam (Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) and Surinder Neer (Jammu & Kashmir, India) have been awarded $10,000 each for their works, Jungle Rakhey Jag De and Taboo, respectively.
Billed as the “largest international literary award for fiction books in the Punjabi language,” the Dhahan Prize was founded in 2013 by the Canada India Education Society and the University of British Columbia.
“Our goal is to make known the excelling works of Punjabi fiction that are released each year, to the wider public,” Barj S. Dhahan, founder of the writing prize, said in a news release. “As an organization, we have always strived for the bridging of the two Punjabs with the diaspora Punjab. Transliteration is one of the most effective ways to do that.
“We hope that through transliteration, more of these curated books will make it into the hands of Punjabis around the world.”
Punjabi is the third most-spoken language in Canada.
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