Journalist and author Raghu Karnad has been conferred the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize.
He is one of eight recipients of the award handed out by Yale University to English language writers from around the world. Each winner receives $165,000 to support their writing.
Raghu received the honour for his debut book, 'Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War,' published in 2015. He is currently the Chief of Bureau of The Wire.
The book was earlier shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for 2016, and was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for a writer in English the same year.
The book narrates the story of three men from the same family, serving in the Indian army during World War II. The book spans various parts of the world including Singapore, Eritrea, Libya, El Alamein, Basra, Arakan and Imphal.
"It's been a week and I've just about managed to accept that this is real and not the result of a mistaken autocorrect prompt. I wrote my book without any certainty that it would even find a publisher outside of India. To have it recognised like this - and placed in the company of others that were my inspirations - feels less like an achievement than a fantastical dream", Raghu stated in reaction to winning the prize.
Going to take this moment to remember my agent, the warm and witty David Miller. He passed away from a heart attack in December 2016. Wish you could have seen this, @drearyagent @RCWLitAgency pic.twitter.com/JIYiRWUMk9
— Raghu Karnad (@rkarnad) March 14, 2019
Raghu is the son of noted Indian actor, director and Kannada writer Girish Karnad. He studied at Swarthmore College and at Oxford. He has served as the editor of Time Out magazine in New Delhi and his writings have appeared in Financial Times, Caravan Magazine, The Guardian, and The New Yorker among other publications.