Women Writer's Prize 2021 Shortlist Announced

Welcome to the Women Writer's Prize 2021!

The inaugural award for women writers of fiction was announced in October 2021 and the shortlist of the fiction novels for the prize is here.

The prize announcement came after seven years of ">Women Writers Fest organised by SheThePeople, putting the spotlight on literary contributions of women writers, and that is exactly what the award aims to do too. Even though women have been writing literature for centuries, they have been often overlooked by the male-populated literary world. The Women Writer's Prize recognises the gap when it comes to awarding works of men and women in the field and makes an effort to provide an exclusive focus on women writers and only women writers.

The Women Writer’s Prize aims to recognise the works of women writers and their worldview. The longlist for the prize was graced by celebrated authors and debut novelists. The same can be said about the shortlist. 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.

Out of the overwhelming number of award submissions and a diverse longlist, our jury members Preeti Gill, G Sampath and Lakshmi shortlisted 6 authors.

Talking about the shortlist, 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 mélange of writers from different backgrounds, belonging to different generations and books with very varied themes. 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."

Here is the Women Writer's Prize 2021 shortlist:

A Mirror Made of Rain - Naheed Phiroze Patel (Fourth Estate India)

A Red-necked Green Bird – Ambai, translator GJV Prasad (S&S India)

Budhini - Sarah Joseph, translator Sangeetha Sreenivasan (Penguin Hamish Hamilton)

Sisterhood of Swans – Selma Carvalho (Speaking Tiger)

The Begum and the Dastan - Tarana Husain Khan (Tranquebar)

What We Know About Her - Krupa Ge (Context) 

Naheed Phiroze Patel

A Mirror Made of Rain

This coming-of-age novel by Naheed Phiroze Patel has the protagonist Noomia Wadia struggling with the complicated relationship she has with her mother. She grows into a troubled adult and finds her story similar to her mother's. That is when her battle against herself starts.

Author Naheed Phiroze Patel is a fellowship award-winning graduate from Columbia University's School of Arts. Her write-ups have appeared in leading Indian and international publications such as The Guardian, New England Review among others. 

Suggested Reading: Shashi Deshpande On Why We Need An Award For Women Writers And More

Ambai

A Red-necked Green Bird

This collection of short stories written by Ambai is a mixture of contemporary and past legends. With every story dealing with different shades of love from parental to the divine, Ambai has put the focus on social issues of the present. The book was translated to English by GJV Prasad.

Writer CS Lakshmi, who writes under the pseudonym Ambai, came out with her first work in 1962 when she was still a teenager. A Red-necked Green Bird is her seventh short-story collection. Lakshmi has many Tamil short stories to her credit. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 by Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden for her contribution to Tamil literature. The feminist writer has worked many years as a lecturer and has done independent research in women's studies. She lives in Mumbai. 

Sarah Joseph

Budhini 

This fiction is a reimagined telling of a real incident that took place in Jharkhand when former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru visited the state to inaugurate the Damodar valley dam in 1959. A woman named Budhini Mehjan was chosen by the Damodar Valley Corporation to welcome the Nehru. She offered a garland to Nehru and applied tikka on his forehead. Seen as an act of matrimony in her community, the 15-year-old girl was ostracised from her village and also lost her job as a construction worker.

The story written in Malayalam was translated into English by the author's daughter Sangeetha Sreenivasan. Sarah Joseph is a celebrated author based in Kerala. In 2016, Joseph resigned as the state convener for the political party Aam Aadmi Party. Her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal won her the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award. 

Selma Carvalho

Sisterhood of Swans

Carvalho's novel is the coming-of-age story of a girl named Anna-Marie Souza who lives in a suburb of London. Her parents migrated there from Bombay before Anna-Marie was born. Her mother loves to hate India and her best friend Sujata constantly thinks about ending her own life. Apart from the two, Anna-Marie also has Jessie, a beautician at a Bollywood-style salon, to add to her colourful life. Then there are men and her failed relationships with them.

Selma Carvalho is an award-winning author who has explored themes of migration and memory in her fiction and non-fiction works. 

Tarana Husain Khan

The Begum and the Dastan 

Schoolgirl Ameera's grandmother narrates the story of her great-grandmother Feroza Begum who was kidnapped and confined in the harem of Nawab Shams Ali Khan of princely state Sherpur. Feroza Begum had to marry the Nawab and live in the harem. Ameera herself is confined in her home because her parents did not pay her school fees.

Author Tarana Husain Khan is a food historian and writer from Rampur who likes to explore the cultural history of the city. Her articles on food have been published by leading publications in India. Khan came out with her first novel titled I Am Not A Bimbette in 2015. She lives between Nainital and Rampur. 

Krupa Ge

What We Know About Her

Yamuna is a young woman struggling to complete her PhD in early twentieth-century music in Tamil Nadu. She lives in her ancestral home Chingleput. While doing the research, she chances upon the story of Lathika, a Carnatic musician and her grandaunt. Yamuna finds a letter written by her grandmother to her grandfather which would reveal a secret about Lathika's life. She visits her grandfather in Banaras to get the letter, to know the old family secret, as no one in her family will talk to her about Lathika.

Krupa Ge came out with her debut novel in 2021. Before that she had written a non-fiction book, Rivers Remember. For the past 14 years, Ge has been doing reportage and cultural writings, which have been published in many reputed publications. Krupa Ge is also the recipient of the Laadli Award for her column on women in cinema. She co-wrote the screenplay for Sharing A Ride, based on a short story written by her, which has been directed by Leena Yadav and made part of an international anthology, Tell It Like A Woman.

Know more about the Women Writer's Prize 2021 here.