New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Books by Naheed Phiroze Patel, Ambai, Sarah Joseph, Selma Carvalho, Tarana Husain Khan and Krupa Ge have made it to the shortlist of SheThePeople's inaugural Women Writer's Prize.

Novels and short story collections written by Indian women authors residing in India are eligible for the prize, which carries prize money of Rs 50,000 and will be announced in March.

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In case of translated work, the award money will be shared equally between writer and translator.

The shortlisted works are: "A Mirror Made of Rain" (Patel); "A Red-necked Green Bird" (Ambai, translated by GJV Prasad); "Budhini (Joseph, translator Sangeetha Sreenivasan); "Sisterhood of Swans" (Carvalho); "The Begum and the Dastan" (Khan); and "What We Know About Her" (Ge).

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The six books were selected by a jury comprising Preeti Gill, G Sampath and Lakshmi Subodh.

The Women Writer's Prize aims to recognise the works of women writers and their worldview. The selection of works spans from debut novels to translated ones of experienced authors, tracing stories from across the globe and deeply focusing on their tapestry of experience and imagination.

Speaking on the diverse shortlist, Padma Shri author and prize mentor Shashi Deshpande said, "The value and reputation of any literary award depends on the books that seek the award. Considering this, the shortlist of the newly instituted Women Writer's Prize is a great beginning. It is an excitingly eclectic list, with a melange of writers from different backgrounds, belonging to different generations and books with very varied themes."

According to her, this list seems to validate the need for an exclusive prize for the writing of women.

"Too often we have seen lists in which women's writing is pushed into the 'also-ran' category. It is now for the judges to tackle the hard job of selecting one out of these deserving six as the final winner," she added.

Shaili Chopra is the prize founder and Shinie Antony the prize curator.

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