Page 2 - Writers

Writer Arundhati Roy receives European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement

Writer Arundhati Roy has been awarded the 45th European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement, the Charles Veillon Foundation has announced. Roy has been awarded the prize for the French translation of her compilation of essays titled "Azadi" (2021). "The jury of the Prix Europeen de l'Essai wishes to highlight an enriching work in terms of reflection on the construction of the world and the relationship with language. Arundhati Roy uses the essay as a form of combat, analysing fascism and the way it is being structured. This is an issue that is increasingly occupying our lives. Her essays offer shelter to a multitude of people," the Foundation said in a statement. The jury also acknowledged Roy's "commitment to political action". In "Azadi", Roy has reflected on the meaning of freedom in a world of "growing authoritarianism". The essays include meditations on language, public as well as private, and on the role of fiction and alternative imaginations in current times. The Delhi-ba

As Hollywood fights AI, Indian screenwriters struggle for pay, credit

Minimum basic contract and a fair deal for their stories remains an ongoing battle

Hollywood directors ink deal with studios, writers still on strike

The tentative agreement includes improvements in wages and guardrails around artificial intelligence

Writers' strike hits Hollywood as members of the Writers Guild protest

The impact of the Hollywood writers strike was felt as major television networks began their annual week of sales presentations to advertisers on Monday, with news personalities like Willie Geist and Stephanie Ruhle left to hawk comedies and dramas for NBC Universal. Fox declined to announce a fall television schedule on Monday, citing uncertainties created by the strike. Some 11,500 members of the Writers Guild for America, saying the rise of streaming has hurt their earning power, walked off the job two weeks after talks on a new contract broke down, and haven't returned to the negotiating table since. Network late-night shows immediately shut down. Picketing writers targeting some of the few shows shooting episodes forced the shutdown, at least temporarily, of programs including Showtime's Billions, Severance on Apple TV+ and the new Marvel show, Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+. The network sales presentations, known as upfronts because TV executives use them to convince ...

WGA strike: Writers association appeals to stop working on US-based shows

Extending their support to the ongoing strike by Writers Guild of America (WGA), India's Screenwriters Association (SWA) has requested its members to halt their work on US-based films and web series. Members of the WGA went on strike early this week demanding better wages, higher minimum pay, more writers per show, and shorter exclusive contracts among other things. The SWA General Secretary Zaman Habib said the WGA is making legitimate requests on behalf of the writers' fraternity and they stand in solidarity with them. "We have appealed to our SWA members, whosoever is working on international shows and films, they should not be writing for now. It is a blanket request... appeal to them. We have great rapport and association with Writers Guild of America (WGA), Writers Guild of Israel, Great Britain, we are also affiliated with International Affiliation of Writers Guild (IAWG), we are one of the members, so we keep supporting each other," Habib told PTI. He said Guilds of other f

Explained: Why are Hollywood writers on strike?

'Plagiarism machines': Writers, studios battle over future of AI

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is seeking to restrict the use of artificial intelligence in writing film and television scripts

Hollywood writers go on strike for better pay amid Guild, studios deadlock

The Writers Guild of America, which represents more than 11,500 Hollywood scribes, said its strike is effective Tuesday morning Los Angeles time

British writer, historian, academician Patrick French died in London at 56

British writer, historian and academician Patrick French died in London after battling cancer for four years on Thursday, his family said. French, best known for his biography of VS Naipaul, "The World Is What It Is", and "India: A Portrait", died at 8 am (London time), his wife Meru Gokhale said. "At 8.10 am this morning my beloved husband Patrick French passed away in London after a brave battle with cancer. He was an exceptional father, friend, husband, teacher and mentor to many. His kindness and love will stay with us forever. He went in peace, without suffering," Gokhale, former publisher at the Penguin Press Group, said. Among those who sent in their tributes were Congress MP and author Shashi Tharoor, and historians William Dalrymple and Ramachandra Guha.

Coffee with BS: Meet Sudha Murty, the technocrat-turned-children's writer

Murty, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan last week, tells Chintan Girish Modi why she thinks kids connect with her as a grandmother

Author Kuldeep Jakhar is keen to try scriptwriting, wants to write a script for the non-fiction genre

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A panoramic history of the cell

Pulitzer Prize winner Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Song of The Cell is a beautifully crafted exposition of the author's own lifelong fascination with the subject

Epic endings: Mahabharata's final chapters

Eminent Indologist Wendy Doniger's latest book focuses on the final days of the protagonists of the epic and makes their stories come alive with different meanings

US sanctions Iranian group that put bounty on Salman Rushdie's life

The US is imposing financial penalties on an Iranian-based organization that raised money to target British-American author Salman Rushdie, who was violently attacked in August at a literary event. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the 15 Khordad Foundation, which issued a multimillion-dollar bounty for the killing of Rushdie. He wrote The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie's agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack by a man who rushed the stage at the event in western New York. The United States will not waver in its determination to stand up to threats posed by Iranian authorities against the universal rights of freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of the press, said Brian Nelson, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. This act of violence, which has been praised by the Iranian regime, is appalling. We all hope fo

Rushdie lost sight in an eye, use of one hand after Aug attack: Report

Salman Rushdie has lost his sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in the US' New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed

Self-publishing picks up among children, young adults; few go mainstream

Self-publishing picks up among the young; mainstream book deals remain largely elusive

Nobel Prize in Literature 2022: A look at past 10 awardees and their work

With this year's Annie Ernaux, Nobel has now 17 women among its 119 literature laureates

Future of Hindi literature set to prosper: Booker winner Geetanjali Shree

Geetanjali Shree, the first Hindi litterateur to receive the International Booker Prize, talks in an interview to Sandeep Kumar on many topics including the impact of this award

Echoes of many partitions

Aanchal Malhotra evocatively recreates the emotional responses of survivors and subsequent generations

The relevance of Kautilya

The central message of this book is that Kautilya's advice, suggestions and recommendations are still relevant