Amitav Ghosh, an author originally from India and currently based in New York, has been honored with the Erasmus Prize 2024 by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, a cultural institution in the Netherlands. This prestigious award includes a monetary prize of US $163,947 (€150,000), scheduled to be presented in the autumn of 2024. Ghosh expressed his joy and deep gratitude upon receiving this recognition.
Ghosh’s selection for the award stems from his significant contribution to the theme of ‘imagining the unthinkable’ and his efforts to shed light on the pressing global issue of climate change through his literary works. The Foundation praised Ghosh for his exploration of how humanity grapples with the existential threat posed by climate change, making an uncertain future tangible through compelling narratives rooted in the past.
His acclaimed novel ‘The Hungry Tide’ vividly portrays the devastating impact of climate change and rising sea levels on the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest in India. Additionally, in his non-fiction book ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse,’ Ghosh traces the origins of the current planetary crisis to a flawed vision that treats the Earth as mere raw material devoid of soul.
Furthermore, Ghosh’s essay ‘The Great Derangement’ challenges readers to consider climate change within the broader geopolitical context of war and trade. Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh pursued social anthropology at Oxford University, shaping his diverse body of work encompassing historical novels and journalistic essays on topics such as migration, diaspora, and cultural identity, always with a focus on the human dimension.
Among his numerous accolades, Ghosh received the Padma Shri award from the Government of India in 2007, was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009, and honored as a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow in 2015. In addition, he was awarded the prestigious Jnanpith Award in 2018 and received an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University in 2019. Foreign Policy magazine recognized him as one of the leading global thinkers in the same year.
Ghosh’s literary journey began with his debut novel ‘The Circle of Reason’ in 1986, followed by other notable fictional works including ‘The Shadow Lines,’ ‘The Calcutta Chromosome,’ ‘The Glass Palace,’ and ‘Gun Island.’ His non-fictional repertoire includes ‘In an Antique Land,’ ‘Dancing in Cambodia and at Large in Burma,’ ‘Countdown,’ and ‘The Imam and the Indian.’
