With some of the greatest discoveries and inventions since ancient times, India has always been regarded as the land of knowledge and wisdom. We have been blessed with some extremely knowledgeable people from different walks of life, including some great female authors.
Although we have thousands of budding women writers in the country at the moment, here are nine who’ve already started their journey to writing some of the best books and are doing a great job at it:
1. Jhumpa Lahiri
Image Source: Vogue
Jhumpa Lahiri also known as Nilanjana Sudeshna is one of India’s most famous women authors. Some of her excellent books include Interpreter of Maladies, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000 and The Namesake, which was later adapted into a movie of the same name. One of her latest books is The Lowland, which was published in 2013 and was nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
2. Arundhati Roy
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Best known for her bestseller The God of Small Things that won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997, Arundhati is an Indian novelist and a political and social activist. She also wrote a television serial, The Banyan Tree and a documentary, DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy. She contributed to a book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples that’s about different types of cultures and tribes across the world. She also has a collection of numerous essays on Indian politics under her name.
3. Kiran Desai
Image Source: Pen International
Kiran is a Delhi-based author who started her journey with her book Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, which was published in 1998 and got accolades from some famous people like Salman Rushdie and awards like the Betty Trask Award. Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss was published in 2006 and won the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
4. Nikita Lalwani
Image Source: Nikita Lalwani
Another famous Indian novelist who’s work has been appreciated worldwide and translated into sixteen languages is Nikita. She has written a couple of famous books like Gifted that was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 and The Village that was selected for the Fiction Uncovered campaign for the best of British Fiction in 2013. Her other books include Seasons: A Book Of Poetry About Sweets, Treats and Random Feats and Pinjarey Mein Udaan.
5. Anita Desai
Image Source: The Times
Anita is an exceptional Indian writer and one of the very few to get shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. She has also received a Sahitya Academy Award for her novel Fire On The Mountain in 1978 and the British Guardian Prize for her exceptionally well-written The Village By The Sea.
6. Indu Sundaresan
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Indu is a historical fiction author who writes fictional stories on the princesses of the Mughal Dynasty. Her first book The Twentieth Wife was published in 2002, followed by many marvelous reads like The Feast of Roses, The Splendor of Silence, In The Convent of Little Flowers, Shadow Princess: A Novel, The Mountain of Light etc.
7. Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi)
Image Source: New Indian Express
She’s an Indian feminist writer who writes under the pseudonym Ambai. She has received accolades and critical acclaim for many of her works like Nandimalai Charalilae, Andhi Maalai, Siragukal Muriyum and her Tamil short-story collection titled Veetin Mulaiyil Oru Camaiyalarai.
8. Anuja Chauhan
Image Source: India Today
Often referred to as the best writer of the Indian commercial fiction genre, Anuja is an Indian author and advertiser. She has worked with JWT India for over seventeen years before making a complete shift into the literary world. She has given us some unforgettable Pepsi slogans like Yeh Dil Maange More and Oye Bubbly. She’s known for her Rom-com novels The Zoya Factor, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, Battle for Bittora and The House That BJ Built.
9. Shashi Deshpande
Image Source: The Better India
An award-winning writer, Shashi has written over nine novels, four children’s books, and a couple of short stories. Some of his best works include That Long Silence, If I Die Today, Come Up and Be Dead, The Binding Vine, Roots and Shadows, Small Remedies, A Matter of Time etc.