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

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 18 May 2016.) was an Indian-British writer,

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

, and translator of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

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

Born in Salem, Taamil 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 The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

and her postgraduate degree from

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. 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 The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in 2011 for services to literature.

Death

She died of cancer on 6 May 2016 in Norwich, aged 80.

Bibliography

Awards

*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 *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 Tamil Literary Garden, Canada *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 The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Ann ...

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 21st-century Indian translators Novelists from Tamil Nadu Writers from Chennai British people of Tamil descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Indian women biographers Indian literary critics Indian women literary critics