Each year, April 23 is celebrated as World Book and Copyright Day. Established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a way to celebrate the power of books, it was first celebrated in 1995. A symbolic day in world literature, April 23 marks the death anniversary of several beloved authors, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garciloso de la Vega.
As part of the celebration, a World Book Capital is selected by UNESCO and international organizations representing publishers, booksellers and libraries— the three major sectors of the book industry. This year it is Rio De Janeiro, taking over from Strasbourg in 2024.
Of course, no book industry would exist or be sustained without authors, the creatives at the base of it all. Initiatives have also sought to expand audience access to writers from minority communities, across caste and gender lines. As readers revel in their favourite books and sort through new treasures, we take a look at some notable women authors who have taken home the top honours of the writing world over the past year.
Nobel Prize in Literature 2024- Han Kang
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 was awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
Ms. Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea, before moving to Seoul at the age of nine. The daughter of a novelist, she is also interested in art and music. She began her writing journey with poetry in 1993, following up with prose in 1995. Some of her works include Your Cold Hands (2002), The Wind Blows, Go (2010), The Vegetarian (2015), Human Acts (2016) and Greek Lessons (2023). Her international breakthrough came with The Vegetarian, a three-part work that traces what happens after its female protagonist embraces vegetarianism, a seemingly innocuous act that spurs a series of dark consequences. 2016’s Human Acts, meanwhile, has as its backdrop the 1980 uprisings in Gwanju, where hundreds of civilians were murdered by the South Korean military.
The Nobel Prize website highlights that Ms. Kang has a “unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead.” In her work, Han Kang combines explorations of historical trauma and the fragile nature of human life, it notes, calling her an innovator in contemporary prose, with a poetic and experimental style.
Booker Prize – Samantha Harvey, Orbital
British author Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for fiction on November 12, 2024 with Orbital— a short novel set aboard the International Space Station. The last time a British author won was in 2020, while the last time a woman won the prize was in 2019. She was one of five women on the 2024 shortlist— the largest ever in the prize’s 55-year history.
Ms. Harvey was awarded the £50,000 (₹53.7 lakh) prize for what she has called a “space pastoral” about six astronauts circling the Earth. The confined characters loop through 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets over the course of a day, trapped in one another’s company and transfixed by the globe’s fragile beauty. Ms Harvey reportedly started the novel while lockdowns took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Harvey has previously written four novels and a memoir about insomnia.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize is awarded to writers of any nationality who write in English and have been published in the U.K and Ireland. Winners include literary heavyweights such as Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Hilary Mantel.
International Booker Prize- Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos
The International Booker Prize in 2024 was awarded to Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, a German novel translated into English by Michael Hofmann. The prize awards £50,000, split equally between the author and the translator. Kairos is set in East Berlin of the 1980s, and is centred on an affair between a young woman and older man who seem to parallel the thwarted idealism of East Germany. It touches on questions of hope, freedom, loyalty and love.
Ms. Erpenback, born in the erstwhile East Germany, is a playwright, opera director and novelist. She was previously longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018 for her novel Go, Went, Gone (2017), which explores race and identity in the context of immigration and refugees flowing into Germany.
International Booker Prize 2025
The shortlist for the 2025 International Booker Prize was announced on April 8, 2025. On the list are four works by women (marked here in bold):
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J Haveland (New Directions): the first of a septology which follows protagonist Tara Selter as she loops between numerous versions of November 18, having slipped out of the ordinary cycles of time.
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson: this book is a fictionalised account of the events leading to the tragic death of 27 migrants after the inflatable dinghy ferrying them across the English Channel capsizes, and French authorities redirected them to British officials for rescue.
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull): a work of speculative fiction set in a future Tokyo, where humans are on cusp of extinction, and the world is peopled, among other things, by robot children made in factories.
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes: a sociological novel reflecting on the empty nature of contemporary existence, following a Berlin couple in their increasingly radical attempts to break out of their seemingly perfect life as they grasp at a sense of purpose and meaning.
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories): a collection of short stories tracing the ordinary lives of Muslim girls and women in South India, portrayed with gentle wit and a keen eye for the quirks of human nature. This is the first time a Kannadiga author has made it to the shortlist for the International Booker prize.
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson (New Directions): this work examines a moving friendship, filled with anguish and affection, between the book’s narrator and his childhood friend Fanny, a tormented young women suffering from numerous psychological disorders.
This selection is narrowed down from the International Booker Longlist of 12 books, of which nine were by women. Apart from the highlighted above, these include:
- The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon (Syracuse UP)
- There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
- Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary (Feminist Press)
- Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton (Hogarth)
- On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott (Two Lines)
Pulitzer Prizes 2024
Another set of grand prizes in the world of literature and writing are the Pulitzer Prizes, which cover a gamut of writing disciplines, from journalism to fiction and drama. This year’s awards will be given out on May 5, 2025.
Here is a selection of the prizes awarded to women writers in 2024, for pieces written during the 2023-24 period.
The journalism prizes
Investigative Reporting: Hannah Dreier of The New York Times
Ms. Dreier won the Pulitzer for Investigative reporting for her series of six stories examining migrant child labour in the United States, detailing its extent and pervasiveness, and the range of corporate and governmental lapses which allow its continuance. Start with this piece.
Explanatory Reporting: Sarah Stillman of The New Yorker
Ms. Stillman’s work uncovered the widespread use of the felony murder charge, and its “disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color.” Read here.
Still extant in the American legal system, the legal principle behind felony murder seeks to hold a person fully responsible for any death that occurs as a result of engaging in unlawful actions, regardless of intent, direct causation or even presence.
Local Reporting: Sarah Conway of City Bureau and Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute
This duo won for their investigative work on missing Black girls and women in Chicago, further spurred by systemic racism and negligence by the police. Explore the project here.
Feature Writing: Katie Engelhart, contributing writer, The New York Times
Ms. Engelhart’s win was for a nuanced exploration of a family as it deals with the progressive dementia affecting its matriarch. The piece portrays the legal and emotional challenges, and also considers the question of what constitutes a person’s essential self. Read here.
The prizes for non-journalistic writing:
Fiction: Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips (Knopf)
This novel is set in Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia following the Civil War. Here an injured Union soldier, a woman who suffered abuse at the hands of a Confederate solider, and her 12-year-old girl seek to heal from their wounds.
Drama: Primary Trust, by Eboni Booth
This drama follows a man as he finds a new job, friends and sense self worth, tackling the emotional damage he has suffered with the help of small kindnesses around him.
History:
No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era, by Jacqueline Jones (Basic Books)
This is a retelling of life in Boston for free Black individuals, that delves into the city’s abolitionist legacy and the struggles of Black working class individuals as the Civil war tensions roiled on.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, by Ilyon Woo (Simon & Schuster)
The book follows the Crafts, a couple who escaped from slavery in Georgia in 1848. To make their way to freedom, the light-skinned Ellen disguised herself as a white gentleman with a disability, while William posed as ‘his’ manservant. After reaching the North, the couple became famous as abolitionists.
Memoir or Autobiography: Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, by Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth)
The winning memoir traces the story of the author’s sister, murdered at age 20 by a former boyfriend. Ms. Garza combines a memoir and biography with investigative journalism, in a narrative shaped by her own loss and a determination to arrive at the truth.
Sahitya Akademi Awards 2024
Twenty-three writers received India’s top literary honour in a ceremony on March 8, 2025. Of these, English author Easterine Kire received the award for her novel Spirit Nights, while Sohan Kaul won the award for her Kashmiri novel Psychiatric Ward. Among the poets receiving the award, Hindi poet Gagan Gill was honoured for her poetry book Main Jab Tak Aai Bahar, Paul Kaur for her Punjabi book on poetry Sun Gunvanta Sun Budhivanta: Itihaasnama Punjab and Haobam Satyabati Devi for her Manipuri book of poetry Mainu Bora Nungshi Sheirol.
The Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, was given to 23 writers. This award recognises the works of authors below the age of 35, writing in one of India’s major languages. K. Vaishali received the award for her memoir Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India. Other honourees were Sutapa Chakraborty (Bengali), Self Made Rani Baro (Bodo), Heena Choudhary (Dogri), Rinku Rathod (Gujarati), Shruti B.R. (Kannada), Rinki Jha Rishika (Maithili), Sonali Sutar (Rajasthani), and Geeta Pradeep Rupani (Sindhi).
Published – April 23, 2025 10:02 pm IST
