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