The realms of art and literature are making strides in South Asian inclusivity.
The Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation launched Thursday, becoming the first international award for works of South Asian translations, Scroll.in reports.
The prize is in collaboration with venture capital company Armory Square Ventures and Open Letter Books, both based in New York, Scroll.in reports.
“The award is groundbreaking,” Armory Ventures said in an announcement. “It aims to remedy the stark disparities in literary translation worldwide, while cultivating a new generation of literary translators working with South Asian languages and recognizing storytellers from the Indian Subcontinent.
According to Scroll.in, the Anglophile-dominated publishing world has reserved little space for South Asian literature.
“Of almost 7,600 books published in translation in the US over the past decade, only 64, or fewer than 1%, originated from a South Asian language,” Scroll.in reports. “These languages are spoken by one-fifth of the world’s population.”
Winners of the Armory Square Prize will have their works published by Open Letter Books in 2024, the company’s announcement said.
The Dallas Museum of Art also took a step in South Asian representation by appointing its first Indian American board president, Gowri Natarajan Sharma, News India Times reports.
According to ARTnews, Sharma is also the museum’s first person of color board president. The DMA has an endowment of $270 million.
According to News India Times, Sharma holds a master’s in architecture and is a founding member of UNICEF in the North Texas and Central Plains region.
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