LONDON, 8 Mar: Indian author Amitav Ghosh has been awarded the prestigious Erasmus Prize-2024 for his passionate contribution to the theme ‘Imagining the unthinkable’ for bringing forth the global crisis of climate change through the written word.
Author of bestsellers such as The Nutmeg’s Curse, The Hungry Tide, and The Great Derangement, among others, Ghosh (67) was awarded the prize by the Netherland’s Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.
“Ghosh has delved deeply into the question of how to do justice to this existential threat that defies our imagination. His work offers a remedy by making an uncertain future palpable through compelling stories about the past,” the foundation said in a statement here soon after the announcement.
He also wields his pen to show that the climate crisis is a cultural crisis that results from a dearth of the imagination, it said.
The prize consists of a sum of money of Euro 1,50,000 and adornments designed by Bruno Ninaber van Eyben. The patron of the foundation presents the prize during a ceremony that usually takes place at the royal palace in Amsterdam.
“I am delighted and hugely honoured! It’s an incredible privilege to follow in the footsteps of legends like @Trevornoah, AS Byatt and Barbara Ehrenreich,” Ghosh posted on his X handle after the announcement.
Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh studied social anthropology at Oxford and divided his time between India and the United States. He has won multiple prizes, including the 2018 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary prize in India. (PTI)