Lakshmi Holmström MBE (1 June 1935 – 6 May 2016Amanda Hopkinson
"Lakshmi Holmström obituary"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 18 May 2016.) was an Indian-British writer, literary critic, and translator of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

fiction into English. Her most prominent works were her translations of short stories and novels by contemporary writers in Tamil, such as Mauni,

Pudhumaipithan C. Viruthachalam (25 April 1906 – 30 June 1948), better known by the pseudonym Pudhumaipithan (also spelt as Pudumaipithan or Puthumaippiththan), was one of the most influential and revolutionary writers of Tamil fiction. His works were charac ...

, Ashoka Mitran,

Sundara Ramasami Sundara Ramaswamy (30 May 1931 – 15 October 2005) was an Indian novelist, poet, translator and literary critic, widely considered to be a pre-eminent figure in post-Independence Tamil literature. Born in 1931 in Thazhuviya Mahadevan Kovil, a ...

, C. S. Lakshmi, Bama, and

Imayam ''Imayam'' (; ) is a 1979 Indian Tamil-language film, directed by Muktha Srinivasan and produced by Muktha Ramaswamy. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan, Srividya, Jaiganesh and Thengai Srinivasan. The film also marked the on-screen debut for Kan ...

. She obtained her undergraduate degree in English literature from the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

and her postgraduate degree from

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Her postgraduate work was on the work of R. K. Narayan. 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. She lived in the United Kingdom. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in 2011 for services to literature. She died of cancer on 6 May 2016.

Bibliography

* ''Indian Fiction in English: the Novels of R. K. Narayan'', Calcutta: Writers Workshop (1973) * (ed.) ''The Inner Courtyard: Short Stories by Indian Women'', London:

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femini ...

(1990) * (trans.) Ambai's ''A Purple Sea'', Affiliated East-West Press (1992) * (ed.) ''Writing from India: Figures in a Landscape'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

(1994) * (trans.)

Silappadikaram ''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം, IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram'' or ''Silappatikaram'', is the ...

Manimekalai ''Maṇimēkalai'' ( ta, மணிமேகலை, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil- Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably around the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a ...

Orient Blackswan Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Orient Longman India, commonly referred to as Orient Longman), is an Indian publishing house headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company publishes academic, professional and general works as well as s ...

(1996) * (trans.) Ashoka Mitran's ''My father's Friend'',

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

(2002) * (trans.) Bama's ''Karukku'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(2000) * (trans.)

's ''Beasts of Burden'', Manas (2001) * (ed.) ''Waves: An Anthology of Fiction and Poetry Translated from Tamil'', Manas (2001) * (trans.) ''Pudumaipithan: Fictions'', Chennai: Katha (2003) * (trans.) Sundara Ramaswamy's ''That's It But'', Chennai:Katha (2003) * ''Mauni: A Writers' Writer'', Chennai:Katha (2004) * (trans.) Na Muthuswamy's ''Neermai'' (Waterness), Chennai:Katha (2004) * (trans.) Bama's ''Sangati'', Oxford University Press (2005) * (trans.) Madhavayya's ''Clarinda, a Historical Novel'', Sahitya Akademi (2005) * (trans.) ''In A Forest, A Deer: Stories'' by Ambai, Chennai:Katha (2006) * (trans.)Salma's ''The Hour Past Midnight'',

Zubaan ''Zubaan'' () is a 2015 Indian musical drama film written and directed by Mozez Singh, starring Vicky Kaushal and Sarah Jane Dias, with music composed by Ashutosh Phatak. The film is the coming of age story of a young boy Dilsher ( Vicky Ka ...

(2009) * (ed.)(trans.) ''The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry: The rapids of a great river'',

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Cheran Rudramoorthy's ''A Second Sunrise'',

Navayana Navayana (Devanagari: नवयान, IAST: ''Navayāna'') means "new vehicle" and refers to the re-interpretation of Buddhism by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar; it is also called Neo-Buddhism and Ambedkarite Buddhism. Ambedkar was a polymath, theol ...

(2012)

Awards and Scholarships

*2000

Crossword Book Award The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Bo ...

in the Indian language fiction translation category for ''Karukku'' by Bama *2003–2006 Fellow,

The Royal Literary Fund The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its long ...

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

*2006

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 Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden *2015

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmstrom, Lakshmi 1935 births 2016 deaths Tamil-language writers Indian Tamil people 20th-century Indian translators University of Madras alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Members of the Order of the British Empire Indian emigrants to England British writers of Indian descent Women writers from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian novelists Indian historical novelists Indian women novelists 21st-century Indian biographers 20th-century Indian short story writers Indian women short story writers 20th-century Indian biographers Indian women translators 21st-century Indian translators Novelists from Tamil Nadu Writers from Chennai British people of Tamil descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Women biographers