Lakshmi Holmström
Introduction '''Lakshmi Holmström''' MBE (; 1 June 1935 – 6 May 2016) 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.
Education She obtained 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 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.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.
Death She died of cancer on 6 May 2016 in Norwich, aged 80.
Bibliography +YearTitleGenreRolePublisher1973''Indian Fiction in English: the Novels of R. K. Narayan''CriticismAuthorWriters Workshop, Calcutta1990''The Inner Courtyard: Short Stories by Indian Women''Short story anthologyEditorVirago Press, London1992''A Purple Sea''(Original author: Ambai)Short story anthologyTranslatorAffiliated East-West Press1994''Writing from India: Figures in a Landscape''EditorCambridge University Press 1996Silappadikaram and Manimekalai (illustrated)EpicsTranslatorOrient Blackswan2000''Karukku''(Original author: Bama)NovelTranslatorOxford University Press2001''Beasts of Burden''(Original author: Imayam )NovelTranslatorManas ''Waves: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry Translated from Tamil''AnthologyEditor2002''My father's Friend''(Original author: Ashokamitran)AnthologyTranslatorSahitya Akademi2003''Pudumaippittan: Fictions''AnthologyTranslatorKatha, Chennai''That's It But''(Original author: Sundara Ramaswamy)Short fiction2004''Mauni: A Writers' Writer''CriticismAuthor''Waterness''(Original author: Na Muthuswamy - ''Neermai'' )Short story anthologyTranslator2005''Sangati''(Original author: Bama)NovelOxford University Press''Clarinda, a Historical Novel''(Original author: A. Madhaviah)NovelSahitya Akademi2006''In A Forest, A Deer: Stories''(Original author: Ambai)Short story anthologyKatha, Chennai2009''The Hour Past Midnight''(Original author: Salma)NovelZubaan ''The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry: The rapids of a great river''Poetry anthologyEditor-translatorPenguin Books 2012''A Second Sunrise''(Original author: Cheran Rudramoorthy)Poetry anthologyTranslator(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*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
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