"Arundhati Roy's Lifetime Achievement Award"

Arundhati Roy has been awarded the 45th Prix Européen de l’Essai for Lifetime Achievement, recognizing her exceptional contributions to the world of essays. While renowned for her fiction works such as “The God of Small Things” and “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness,” Roy has also made a significant impact in the realm of non-fiction, particularly in addressing topics like nuclear power, global conflicts, and the challenges democracies face.

Often described as a ‘writer-activist,’ Roy has faced criticism for delving into subjects typically reserved for scholarly discourse. Responding to this, she once remarked in a 2002 essay, “I’ve been saddled with this double-barrelled appellation… not because my work is political, but because in my essays, I take sides. I take a position. I have a point of view. What’s worse, I make it clear that I think it’s right and moral to take that position and what’s even worse, use everything in my power to flagrantly solicit support for that position. For a writer of the 21st century, that’s considered a pretty uncool, unsophisticated thing to do.”

Re-reported from the article originally published in The Indian Express