Prayaag Akbar

Last updated

Prayaag Akbar
Born25 July 1982
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
OccupationWriter/Journalist
NationalityIndian
Notable works Leila

Prayaag Akbar an Indian journalist and novelist. He is the former deputy editor of Scroll.in and was a reporter for Outlook magazine. [1] He has written for publications including Indian Express and Caravan, covering issues of caste, class, and politics. [2]

Contents

His debut novel, Leila was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize. It won the Crossword Jury Prize and Tata Literature First Book Award. In February 2018, Netflix announced that it would be developing a series based on the novel. [3] [4]

He is currently a professor of literature at Krea University.

Life

Prayaag studied economics at Dartmouth College and comparative politics at the London School of Economics, and spent a year at Routledge as a publicity assistant. [5] His father is M.J. Akbar, former Minister of State for External Affairs. [6]

Novels

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Erdrich</span> American author (born 1954)

Karen Louise Erdrich is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salman Rushdie</span> Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.

Rohinton Mistry is an Indian-born Canadian writer. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2012. Each of his first three novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His novels to date have been set in India, told from the perspective of Parsis, and explore themes of family life, poverty, discrimination, and the corrupting influence of society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vikram Seth</span> An Indian novelist and poet

Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. J. Akbar</span> Indian journalist and politician (born 1951)

Mobasher Jawed Akbar is an Indian journalist and politician, who served as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs until 17 October 2018. Akbar is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by PM Narendra Modi on 5 July 2016. He is also a veteran Indian journalist and author of several books. He was a Member of Parliament between 1989 and 1991, and returned to public life in March 2014 when he joined the BJP and was appointed national spokesperson during the 2014 general elections that brought the party back to office with a simple majority under the leadership of Narendra Modi. In July 2015 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand. During his long career in journalism, he launched, as editor, India's first weekly political news periodicals, including India Today, Headlines Today, The Telegraph, The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amitav Ghosh</span> Indian writer (born 1956)

Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honor. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and also written non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pankaj Mishra</span> Award-winning Indian essayist-novelist

Pankaj Mishra FRSL is an Indian essayist, novelist, and socialist political figure. His non-fiction works include Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours, and has published two novels. He is a Bloomberg opinion columnist, and prolific contributor to other periodicals such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. His writings have led to a number of controversies, including disputes with Salil Tripathi, Niall Ferguson and Jordan Peterson. He was awarded the Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N. S. Madhavan</span> Indian writer of Malayalam literature (born 1948)

N. S. Madhavan is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his novel, Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal and a host of short stories such as Higuita, Thiruthu, Chulaimedile Shavangal and Vanmarangal Veezhumpol, Madhavan also writes football columns and travel articles. He is a distinguished fellow of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and a recipient of several major awards including Odakkuzhal Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, Muttathu Varkey Award, Mathrubhumi Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Kerala State Students Federation Sahithyolsav Award

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amit Chaudhuri</span> Indian poet and classical singer (born 1962)

Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leila Aboulela</span> Sudanese writer

Leila Fuad Aboulela is a fiction writer, essayist, and playwright of Sudanese origin based in Aberdeen, Scotland. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and moved to Scotland in 1990 where she began her literary career. Until 2023, Aboulela has published six novels and several short stories, which have been translated into fifteen languages. Her most popular novels, Minaret (2005) and The Translator (1999) both feature the stories of Muslim women in the UK and were long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Orange Prize. Aboulela’s works have been included in publications such as Harper's Magazine, Granta, The Washington Post and The Guardian. BBC Radio has adapted her work extensively and broadcast a number of her plays, including The Insider, The Mystic Life and the historical drama The Lion of Chechnya. The five-part radio serialization of her 1999 novel The Translator was short-listed for the Race In the Media Award (RIMA). Aboulela’s work is critically acclaimed for its depiction of Muslim migrants in the West the and the challenges they face. Her work is heavily influenced by her own experiences as an immigrant to the United Kingdom and the hardships she experienced during the transition. Her work centers around political issues and themes such as identity, multi-cultural relationships, the East-West divide, migration, and Islamic spirituality. Her prose has been celebrated by J.M Coetzee, Ben Okri and Ali Smith. Her novel River Spirit was praised by Abdulrazak Gurnah for its "extraordinary sympathy and insight".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramachandra Guha</span> Indian historian and writer

Ramachandra "Ram" Guha is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. He is an important authority on the history of modern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Chee</span> American writer

Alexander Chee is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akbar Kakkattil</span> Indian short story writer and novelist

Akbar Kakkattil was an Indian short-story writer and novelist from Kerala state.

Anuradha Roy is an Indian novelist, journalist and editor. She has written five novels: An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), The Folded Earth (2011), Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), All the Lives We Never Lived (2018), and The Earthspinner (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imtiaz Ali Taj</span> Pakistani playwright (1900 - 1970)

Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj was a dramatist who wrote in the Urdu language. He is remembered above all for his 1922 play Anarkali, based on the life of Anarkali, that was staged hundreds of times and was adapted for feature films in India and Pakistan, including the Indian film Mughal-e-Azam (1960).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leïla Slimani</span> Franco-Moroccan writer

Leïla Slimani is a Franco-Moroccan writer and journalist. She is also a French diplomat in her capacity as the personal representative of the French president Emmanuel Macron to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. In 2016 she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Chanson douce.

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar is an Indian writer.

<i>Leila</i> (novel) 2017 novel by Prayaag Akbar

Leila is a 2017 Indian dystopian novel written by Prayaag Akbar. Set in the 2040s, the story follows Shalini, who tries to find her missing daughter Leila in a totalitarian regime. It was published by Simon & Schuster in several formats worldwide on 20 April 2017 and received a positive critical reception. It is also available as an audiobook narrated by Tania Rodriguez.

<i>Leila</i> (TV series) TV series or program

Leila is an Indian Hindi-language dystopian drama web series directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar. Based on the 2017 eponymous novel by Prayaag Akbar, Leila follows the story of Shalini, who tries to find her missing daughter in a totalitarian regime in the near future. Written by Urmi Juvekar, it stars Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and Arif Zakaria. A teaser was launched on 8 March. The six-episode series premiered on 14 June 2019 on Netflix.

<i>Song of the Soil</i> 2018 novel by Chuden Kabimo

Song of the Soil is a 2019 Nepali novel by Chuden Kabimo. The novel is based on the Gorkhaland movement revolution that took place during 1980s in the northern part of West Bengal. The Nepali edition of the novel was initially published in 2019 by FinePrint Publication in Nepal and Sambodhan Publication in India.

References

  1. "Prayaag Akbar". Aeon.
  2. "Leila". Allen & Unwin Book Publishers. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  3. Jajodia, Ishaan. "Novel Approach". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  4. Verma, Rahul. "Leila: The Indian Handmaid's Tale". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  5. "Prayaag Akbar". Edinburgh International Book Festival. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  6. Venkataramakrishnan, Rohan; Rajshekhar, M (27 October 2018). "The MJ Akbar playbook: Men look back at how he preyed on women colleagues in newsrooms and got away". Scroll.in. Retrieved 8 April 2019.