Katha Books

"Katha is literally a literary institution. It’s a non-profit making society devoted to “enhancing the pleasures of reading.” Every year it publishes in English a collection of short stories originally written in various Indian languages. This year, women and children come first, stories with adult males as the central characters are in a minority … " Gillian Wright writes in praise of Katha Prize Stories Volume Four.[9]

Naiyer Masud,[10] eminent critic, says after reading Katha's translation, "[Naiyer Masud's stories, fragments of a dream really, work as Kafka would say quite like an axe for the frozen sea inside us."[11] One of the stories was made into a play in Mumbai as "TAOOS CHAMAN KI MYNA" by Gillo Theatre repertory, in 2013. (Adaptation and Direction – Atul Tiwari. Music – Amod Bhatt. Production Design – M S Sathyu. Creative Director: Shaili Satyu.)

Some other reviews: We don’t need to quantify the good work ... Katha [has] done.[12]

"Katha has brought the English-reading audience closer to regional language literature. One hopes this will eventually make international readers too focus on Indian literature beyond Indo-Anglian writing." [13]

Sharad Chandra, writes in the Hindu, "While going through the book, it is hard not to be impressed not only by the stories it contains, but also by the method of their selection, presentation and production. Put together more or less in the manner of Pushcart Prize Stories, Katha Prize Stories 3 offers to English language readers, some of the best short fiction written in regional Indian languages. With a truly pan-Indian perspective, it makes the writers in the country’s many different regions and languages aware of each other’s works and of the problems and themes currently engaging their attention. Its selections for the yearly edition being strictly restricted to the stories published during the previous year, Katha Prize Stories has established itself in a surprisingly short period of three years as an anxiously awaited yearly event watched alike by discerning readers in India and abroad, as well as by writers, translators, and literary journals. Because of the care for quality, it has already become a matter of prestige for writers, translators, nominators, journals to find their names included in that year’s Katha collection." [14]

Initiated in 1990, these awards have gone a long way in promoting the best of fiction in Indian literature.[15] and has "firmly put translation onto the Indian publishing agenda with the 'Katha Prize' Stories series".[16] Also known as Katha Award for Creative Fiction, stories written in the regional languages, including Bangla, English, Konkani, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, and English are considered, given in 30 categories in all, and the highest award, the 'Katha Chudamani Award' given for lifetime literary achievement to writers of exceptional merit, honours the writer with a citation, a cash award and with publication in English of their significant works.

They are the A K Ramanujan Award (for translators), Kathakari Award (to a writer who retells oral folk tales) and the Kathavachak Award (to a writer who uses oral traditions to write a modern-day story).[17] Thirteen volumes of Katha Prize Stories have been published so far.[18][19] The award are also marked by the week-long 'Katha Utsav' (Katha Festival), where story-tellers from many parts of the world take part[20]

• Katha NGO

• Katha, Main Website
• Katha NGO, Profile at The Times Group (Times Foundation)