Amitav Ghosh honoured with Jnanpith Award 2018

Noted English writer Amitav Ghosh has been honoured with this year’s Jnanpith Award, which is in its 54th edition .

The decision was taken in a meeting of Jnanpith Selection Board chaired by eminent novelist, scholar and Jnanpith laureate Pratibha Ray.

It is the first time since its inception that the Jnanpith is awarded to a writer in English language.

In a statement, Bharatiya Jnanpith said Amitav Ghosh is a path-breaking novelist. In his novels, Ghosh treads through historical settings to the modern era and weaves a space where the past connects with the present in relevant ways.

Ghosh, one of the most prominent contemporary Indian writers, is known for a series of novels such as “Shadow Lines”, “The Glass Palace”, “The Hungry Tide”, and Ibis Trilogy  “Sea of Poppies”, “River of Smoke”, and “Flood of Fire” chronicling the Opium trade between India and China run by the East India Company. Ghosh is also recipient of the Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi Award.

His most recent book, The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, was released in 2016.

Born in Kolkata in 1956 to a Bengali Hindu family, the 62-year-old author currently lives in New York with his wife Deborah Baker.

Ghosh, who spent his formative years in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria.

The Jnanpith award, instituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith in 1961, is conferred to Indian writers writing in English and Indian languages every year.

Earlier awardees include U.R. Anantha Murthy (1994), Mahasveta Devi (1996), Girish Karnad (1998), Nirmal Verma (1999), Shrilal Shukla (2009), Kedarnath Singh (2013) and Krishna Sobti (2017).