Lakshmi Holmström
Indian-British writer and translator (1935–2016)
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Lakshmi Holmström MBE (1 June 1935 – 6 May 2016[1][2]) was an Indian-British writer, literary critic, and translator of Tamil fiction into English. Her most prominent works were her translations of short stories and novels by contemporary writers in Tamil, such as Mauni, Pudhumaipithan, Ashoka Mitran, Sundara Ramasami, C. S. Lakshmi, Bama, and Imayam.
Lakshmi Holmström | |
|---|---|
Holmström at 2013 Jaipur Literature Festival | |
| Born | 1 June 1935 |
| Died | 6 May 2016 (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Author, translator in English |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford University of Madras |
| Period | 1973–2016 |
| Genre | Tamil – English translation |
| Subject | Women, classical and contemporary literature |
| Notable works | Sangati (trans.) Karukku (trans.) In a Forest, A Deer |
Education
Born in Salem, Tamil Nadu, in 1935, to Paul David Devanandan and Hannah (nee Amaruvati) as the second daughter, Lakshmi lost her mother, when she was barely two years old. Her father re-married. Lakshmi received her undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Madras and her postgraduate degree from University of Oxford. Her postgraduate work was on the work of R. K. Narayan.
Career
She settled in the United Kingdom and she was the founder-trustee of SALIDAA (South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive) – an organisation archiving the work of British writers and artists of South Asian origin.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
From 2003 to 2006 she was a Fellow of The Royal Literary Fund at University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, England.
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2011 for services to literature.[9]
Death
Bibliography
| Year | Title | Genre | Role | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Indian Fiction in English: the Novels of R. K. Narayan | Criticism | Author | Writers Workshop, Calcutta |
| 1990 | The Inner Courtyard: Short Stories by Indian Women | Short story anthology | Editor | Virago Press, London |
| 1992 | A Purple Sea
(Original author: Ambai) |
Short story anthology | Translator | Affiliated East-West Press |
| 1994 | Writing from India: Figures in a Landscape | Editor | Cambridge University Press | |
| 1996 | Silappadikaram and Manimekalai (illustrated) | Epics | Translator | Orient Blackswan |
| 2000 | Karukku
(Original author: Bama) |
Novel | Translator | Oxford University Press |
| 2001 | Beasts of Burden
(Original author: Imayam ) |
Novel | Translator | Manas |
| Waves: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry Translated from Tamil | Anthology | Editor | ||
| 2002 | My father's Friend
(Original author: Ashokamitran) |
Anthology | Translator | Sahitya Akademi |
| 2003 | Pudumaippittan: Fictions | Anthology | Translator | Katha, Chennai |
| That's It But
(Original author: Sundara Ramaswamy) |
Short fiction | |||
| 2004 | Mauni: A Writers' Writer | Criticism | Author | |
| Waterness
(Original author: Na Muthuswamy - Neermai ) |
Short story anthology | Translator | ||
| 2005 | Sangati
(Original author: Bama) |
Novel | Oxford University Press | |
| Clarinda, a Historical Novel
(Original author: A. Madhaviah) |
Novel | Sahitya Akademi | ||
| 2006 | In A Forest, A Deer: Stories
(Original author: Ambai) |
Short story anthology | Katha, Chennai | |
| 2009 | The Hour Past Midnight
(Original author: Salma) |
Novel | Zubaan | |
| The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry: The rapids of a great river | Poetry anthology | Editor-translator | Penguin Books | |
| 2012 | A Second Sunrise
(Original author: Cheran Rudramoorthy) |
Poetry anthology | Translator
(with Sascha Ebeling) |
Navayana |
Awards
- 2000 Crossword Book Award in the Indian language fiction translation category for Karukku by Bama
- 2006 Crossword Book Award in the Indian language fiction translation category for In a Forest, A Deer by C. S. Lakshmi
- 2007 Iyal Virudhu Lifetime Achievement Award given by The Tamil Literary Garden, Canada
- 2015 Crossword Book Award in the Indian language fiction translation category for Children, Women, Men by Sundara Ramaswamy[10]
- 2016 The A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for translation from a South Asian language, awarded by the Association for Asian Studies for Children, Women and Men, originally published as Kuzhandaigal, Pengal, Aangal by Sundara Ramaswamy, Penguin Books India