Journalist and author Raghu Karnad wins Rs 1,15,00,000 Windham-Campbell Prize
New Delhi: Karnad won the prize in the non-fiction category for his book, ‘Farthest Field’, about India’s role in World War II.
Delhi-based journalist and author Raghu Karnad was announced as one of eight recipients of Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Prize this year, in London. One of the world’s most lucrative literary awards, the prize is open to English language writers from across the world, with each winner receiving $165,000 to support their writing.
Karnad was named as a winner in the non-fiction category of the prize for his debut book, Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, published in 2015. Panning across Singapore, Eritrea, Libya, El Alamein, Basra, Arakan and Imphal, Farthest Field tells the story of three men from the same family serving in the Indian Army during World War II. Calling it an “epic of un-forgetting”, the prize lauded Karnad’s writing for combining forensic archival research with “imaginative fire and unsettling national and colonial histories”.
Established in 2013 after writer Donald Windham left his estate to Yale University, the Windham-Campbell Prize does not have a submission process and is judged anonymously, with winners only finding out through a phone call from director of the prize. The literary award aims to “call attention to literary achievements” and allow writers to “focus on their work independent of financial concerns”.
American writer Rebecca Solnit was named as the other winner in this year’s non-fiction category. The winners for fiction are Irish short story write Danielle McLaughlin and Canadian novelist David Chariandy. Ghanian poet Kwame Dawes and Ishion Hutchinson from Jamaica won for poetry and Australian playwright Patricia Cornelius and Korean-American director and playwright Young Jean Lee won in the Drama category.
Past winners of the prize include Jerry Pinto, Maya Jasanoff, Teju Cole and Geoff Dyer.\
Courtesy: scroll.in
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Manipur: Mortal remains of children killed in bomb attack handed over to family
Imphal (PTI): The mortal remains of two children, who were killed in a bomb attack in Manipur's Bishnupur district in April, were handed over to family members on Saturday, officials said.
The bodies of the five-year-old boy and his six-month-old sister were kept in the morgue for 25 days, as the family members had refused to accept the mortal remains, demanding that the perpetrators be brought to book at the earliest.
On April 25, Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh had appealed to the family members of the children to accept the bodies. Singh had also said that all efforts were underway to find the culprits.
The two children were killed in a bomb attack at Tronglaobi in Bishnupur district on April 7. Their bodies were kept in the morgue at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal.
The incident had triggered widespread violent protests in the five valley districts of Manipur, and the case was subsequently handed over to the NIA.
Hundreds of people lined up along the way to Tronglaobi to offer floral tributes, as the mortal remains were taken for the last rites in an open vehicle earlier in the day.
