Ananda Devi

Born in Mauritius, Ananda Devi is a multi-award winning novelist, short-story writer and poet. Translated into a dozen languages, she is considered a powerful voice in modern African writing in French. Winner of the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature for the entirety of her work, she holds a PhD in social anthropology from SOAS, London, where she lived for several years. She has also lived in Congo-Brazzaville and currently resides in Ferney-Voltaire, France. In 2023 she won the Grand Prix de l'Héroïne Madame Figaro for Sylvia P., a long form essay on American poet Sylvia Plath; the Prix Étonnants Voyageurs for her novel Manger l’autre (2018). In 2015, she was featured at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York. In 2014, she was awarded the Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises by the Académie Française. She won the Prix Mokanda (2012). She was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010 and won the Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie (2006) for Ève de ses décombres, published in English as Eve out of Her Ruins (2016).

Eve Out of Her Ruins and The Living Days were translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman.

Related articles and media:
‘Broken Mirror’, Ananda Devi writes for adda.
‘Who Gets to Write What?’ Ananda Devi writes for PEN Transmissions.
‘European Writers on Borders and Identity’, an EUNIC online event with Ananda Devi in conversation with Leila Aboulela, and Kapka Kassabova, The transcript of Devi’s answers to James Crawford's questions is available here.

‘Here is a truly great writer.’ — J. M. G. Le Clézio

‘One of the major literary voices of the Indian Ocean.’ — PEN American Centre

‘Ananda Devi confronts us with instances of great pain and suffering, yet seldom without embracing the redemptive qualities of attentiveness, spirit, beauty.’ — The National (Abu Dhabi)