Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag’s novel Sakina’s Kiss, translated by Srinath Perur, has been shortlisted for the 2026 James Tait Black Prize for Fiction. The novel has been published by Penguin Random House in India and Faber and Faber in the UK.

The James Tait Black Prizes are awarded in Fiction and Biography and were founded in 1919 by Janet Tait Black in memory of her husband. The Prizes are judged by the University of Edinburgh scholars and literature students.

Along with Sakina’s Kiss, the other fiction titles on the shortlist are:

• Big Kiss, Bye Bye, Claire-Louise Bennett, Fitzacarraldo Editions




• Darryl, Jackie Ess, Divided Publishing




• On the Greenwich Line, Shady Lewis, translated from the Arabic by Katharine Halls, Peirene Press




• The Original, Nell Stevens, Scribner

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