Indian poet’s book makes it to top 10

Daljit & Rajiv have been shortlisted for The Guardian’s First Book Award

LONDON: Indian-origin poet Daljit Nagra’s book Look We Have Coming To Dover, has made it to the 10 finalists for the Guardian First Book Award.

The author’s first collection of poems including the award-winning title poem, which looks at the idealism and reality of multicultural Britain, was among a long list that includes two other writers of South Asian origin.

Daljit Nagra’s title poem has already won the Forward poetry prize for a single poem. Nagra, whose parents came to Britain from the Punjab in the 1960s, is London born and bred and widely published. His poems often reflect the experiences of his immigrant parents.

Nagra finds himself in competition with Rajiv Chandrasekaran whose book Imperial Life in the Emerald City scooped this year’s Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction. The ex-Baghdad journalist’s expose of what went on in the US-led Provisional Coalition Authority after the Iraq war has received rave reviews.

The third writer from South Asia in the long list is Tahmima Anam with her novel A Golden Age. This is the 31-year-old’s first novel and uses the bloody birth of Bangladesh as the ‘scaffolding’ for her narrative. Anam, who currently lives in London, writes about the war of independence from the perspective of someone growing up in the shadow of a generation that fought and lived with the pain and glory of revolution.

The prize money is only £10,000 but the award is very prestigious. It is dedicated to spotting and advancing new writing talent and rewards works from all genres. “It was incredibly hard to whittle the fiction for this list down to just five titles. Books of reportage on international affairs have also been very strong,” said Claire Armitstead, chair of the judges, on releasing the list.