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Tata LitFest honour for Amitav Ghosh

  • The Tata Lit fest recognises and honours outstanding contributions in the Indian literary space
  • Author Amitav Ghosh gets the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement award for 2016
  • 'River of Smoke'(2011) was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asia Literary Prize.
tata lit fest amitav ghosh

 

Eminent writer Amitav Ghosh has been chosen for this year's Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement award, which is scheduled to be presented to him during the upcoming Mumbai LitFest, organisers said.
 

 

The award, that recognises and honours outstanding contributions in the Indian literary space, will be conferred upon Ghosh on November 20 in Mumbai. The 60-year-old writer said that he was "deeply honoured" to receive the award.  "It is a privilege to be included in a list of such distinguished honorees," he said.

 

Past recipients of the award include iconic writers Kiran Nagarkar in 2015, M T Vasudevan Nair in 2014, Khushwant Singh in 2013, V S Naipaul in 2012 and Mahasweta Devi in 2011.


One of the most celebrated Indian writers, Ghosh is best known for his meticulous historical research that he weaves into his writing with great grace and elegance.  'Sea of Poppies' (2008), first in his Ibis Trilogy that talks about the opium trade between India and China, was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and awarded the Crossword Book Prize.


'River of Smoke'(2011) was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asia Literary Prize.


Many of his earlier books have also won accolades. 'The Circle of Reason' (1986) was awarded France's Prix Médicis Étranger in 1990; 'The Shadow Lines' (1988) won the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Ananda Puraskar; 'The Calcutta Chromosome' (1996) was winner of the 1997 Arthur C Clarke award for Best Science Fiction; 'The Glass Palace' (2000), an international bestseller, won the International e-Book Award at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2001; and 'The Hungry Tide' (2004) was awarded India's Crossword Book Prize.
 

His latest book, 'The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable' (2016), is an examination and analysis of how the overlapping worlds of politics, history and literature have failed to grasp the enormity or dangers of climate change.
 

 "The list of finest contemporary Indian-English writers remains incomplete without the name of Amitav Ghosh. We at Tata Literature Live! are very excited to announce Ghosh as this year's recipient of the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award.


 "His immense contribution to literature is well-known and recognised far and wide. We are looking forward to having him with us and hearing his riveting thoughts at the festival," Anil Dharker, Founder and Director, Literature Live!, said.
    

In 2007, Ghosh was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his distinguished contribution to literature. His works have also been translated into more than twenty languages.


One of the most popular literary festivals, Tata LitFest this year has also introduced three new awards this year – the Big Little Book Awards for Author and Illustrator in the Literature-for-children category, and the Sultan Padamsee Award for Playwriting. 

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