Legendary Indian novelist and feminist writer, Shashi Deshpande was awarded a Lifetime Achievement AutHer Award this year for her timeless contribution to Indian writing in the English language. And in her acceptance speech, Deshpande revealed the one question which she hopes no women writer should be asked.
"A lifetime achievement award is very precious because it is your whole life's work which is being celebrated here. The letter that informed me of the award wrote of the odds and inhibitions that women writers have to endure... I was also most often asked the question by journalists and academics, 'Why do you write about women?'. Novel after novel I hoped I would be considered a serious writer, not as a woman writer writing about women. But it never seems to happen. However, today when I look at the winners of this evening and the three writers who received this award before me-- Nayantara Sahgal, Romila Thapar, and Anita Desai--all of them women of courage and women I admire. When I think of Annie Ernaux, the Nobel Prize for Literature 2022 winner, she wrote only about women's experiences and Geetanjali Shree-- who wrote about women's lives-- won the International Booker Prize 2022, I dare to hope that such questions would never be asked of any writer who happens to be a woman," Deshpande said on winning the award.
