Khatulistiwa Literary Award: Honoring RI's best fiction
Khatulistiwa Literary Award: Honoring RI's best fiction
The Commonwealth countries have the Booker Prize and now
Indonesia has the Khatulistiwa Literary Award.
The award, which honors Indonesia's best fiction, is being
awarded for the first time this year.
The Khatulistiwa is the brainchild of Richard Oh, the owner of
QB World Books, and is supported by the management of Plaza
Senayan, Mont Blanc, Ernst & Young, Honda, Jakarta Hilton
International, Secure Parking and nuvoCom.
According to the organizers, the purpose of the award is to
raise the image of Indonesian literature and to encourage more
Indonesians to read.
It is also hoped that the Khatulistiwa award will encourage
authors and publishers to continue creating quality works of
fiction.
Eligible for the award are novels and collections of short
stories and poetry written by an Indonesian author in either
Indonesian or English, and published here between September 2000
and August 2001. Books must be original literary works published
in book form for the first time, with reprints not considered
eligible.
Selecting the winner of the award is a three-stage process,
the first two stages of which have been completed. First, 35 jury
members each nominated 10 titles, with the 10 most nominated
titles going on to the next stage.
In Stage II, five members of the jury each nominated five
titles from the 10 books selected in the previous stage, though
there were 11 titles because of a tie. The five most nominated
titles then went on to the final stage, though six books advanced
because of a tie.
In the last stage, five jury members each rate the titles on a
scale of one to five. The book that gains the most points wins
the award. The winner will receive a medallion, Rp 30 million in
cash and a prize from Mont Blanc.
The six books that made it to the final stage are Setangkai
Melati di Sayap Jibril by Danarto; Supernova by Dewi Lestari;
Kill the Radio by Dorothea Rosa Herliany; Hujan Menulis Ayam by
Sutardji Calzoum Bachri; Sampah Bulan Desember by Hamsad
Rangkuti; and Goenawan Mohamad: Sajak-sajak Lengkap by Goenawan
Mohamad.
The winner of the Khatulistiwa Literary Award will be
announced during a ceremony on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Plaza
Senayan Atrium. --JP