Vani Foundation and Teamwork Arts will present this year’s Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award at the prestigious Jaipur BookMark (JBM). The award honours those translators who have consistently and qualitatively facilitated literary and linguistic exchange between at least two Indian or international languages. This award was deemed necessary in order to actively encourage direct exchange between Indian and international languages at a time when such endeavours were few or none. The award especially favours translators who have produced a significant literary corpus. It carries a monetary prize of one lakh Indian rupees or equivalent in addition to the trophy and testimonial letter. The award is in its 7th edition in 2023.The Award’s Journey so far:
- Attoor Ravi Verma (2015 -2016): Malayalam
- Anamika (2016-2017): Bhojpuri
- Rita Kothari (2017- 2018): Sindhi
- Teji Grover (2018 -2019): Hindi
- Rakhshanda Jalil (2019- 2020): Urdu
- Arunava Sinha (2021-2022): Bangla
The first Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award for the year 2016 was presented to Malayalam poet Attoor Ravi Verma. In the year 2017, this award was given to the eminent translator, poet, writer and critic Dr. Anamika. In 2018, cultural historian and translator Dr. Rita Kothari was given this prestigious award and in 2019, this award was given to the eminent poet, storyteller, translator and painter Teji Grover. The award in 2020, the Urdu scholar and critic Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil was given the award for her contribution to the world of literary translations. The 2021 award was presented to Arunava Sinha for his translations of Bangla literature into English.
The award has been an integral part of JBM since 2016. JBM’s motto in creating a dedicated space for translations with a select list of works every year, makes the it a perfect platform for the prestigious award. The jury for the award comprises Namita Gokhale- Founder and Co-Director of Jaipur Literature Festival, Neeta Gupta- Director of Jaipur BookMark and Sundeep Bhutoria, Chairman of Prabha Kahitan Foundation, author and cultural critic.
About Daisy Rockwell:
Daisy Rockwell is a painter and translator of Hindi and Urdu literature, living in northern New England. She paints under the takhallus, or alias, Lapata (pronounced ‘laapataa’), which is Urdu for “missing,” or “absconded,” as in “my luggage is missing,” or “the bandits have absconded.” She posts her paintings regularly to Flickr, and has shown her work widely.
Rockwell grew up in a family of artists in western Massachusetts, some whose work adorns the surfaces of chinaware and brightens up the waiting rooms of dentists’ offices, and others whose artistic output has found more select audiences. From 1992-2006, she made a detour into Academia, from which she emerged with a PhD in South Asian literature, a book on the Hindi author Upendranath Ashk and a mild case of depression.
Rockwell has published numerous translations from Hindi and Urdu, including Ashk’s Falling Walls (2015), Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas (2016), and Khadija Mastur’s The Women’s Courtyard. Her translation of Krishna Sobti’s final novel, A Gujarat here, a Gujarat there (Penguin, 2019) was awarded the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work in 2019. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand (Tilted Axis Press, 2021) has won the International Booker Prize. Rockwell has also written The Little Book of Terror, a volume of paintings and essays on the Global War on Terror (Foxhead Books, 2012), and her novel Taste was published by Foxhead Books in April 2014.
The Indian publishing industry has grown rapidly with the world’s attention converging on it: creating a meaningful B2B platform for publishers was thus essential and the Jaipur BookMark was conceived to run parallel to the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival. In the 7 years since its inception, JBM has fast emerged as a nerve centre for the South Asian publishing industry and is indeed a focal point where books mean business.
About Vani Prakashan Group:
Vani Prakashan Group has been publishing finest Hindi literature for 60 years in over 38 genres. It has published over 7,000 books in print, electronic and audio format. It has a footprint in more than 3,00,000 villages, 2,800 towns, 54 major cities and 12 major online book stores in the country. The group has taken over the publishing program of India’s oldest publishing house ‘Bharatiya Jnanpith’ that was established in 1944. With this, the Vani Prakashan Group is Hindi’s largest publishing conglomerate.
Vani Prakashan is also connected with major library systems of India, United States of America, United Kingdom and Middle East. Vani Prakashan’s list includes 32 Sahitya Akademi awarded books and authors, 9 Nobel laureates translated into Hindi and 24 other major awarded writers and books. The organisation is honored at the National Library, Sweden, Indo-Russian Literary Club and Russian Center of Art Culture and by the Polish Government for promoting Indo-Swedish, Russian and Polish literary exchange, respectively. Vani Prakashan has also won the prestigious Distinguished Publisher Award instituted by The Federation of Indian Publishers in 2008. On its 51st anniversary, it laid the foundation for its not-for-profit arm Vani Foundation. The Foundation works in the field of translation and instituted India’s prestigious Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award with Jaipur BookMark.
The publishing house has recently won the National Award ‘Swarn Kamal’-2016 for Best Book on Cinema by the Hon. President (former) of India Dr. Pranab Mukherjee and is the first publishing house in India to be awarded the Excellence Award by the Oxford Business College, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The Hindi translation of French graphic novel ‘Persepolis’ by Marjane Satrapi has won the Best Printed Book of the Year Award by the Publishing Next in 2022.
About Teamwork Arts:
Teamwork Arts is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the corporate world. For over 30 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers, change makers and visual artistes in the knowledge and arts space in India and abroad.
Website: www.teamworkarts.com
