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Contributor

Lakshmi Holmström

Contributor

Lakshmi Holmström

India United Kingdom

Lakshmi Holmström is a writer and translator. She has translated short stories, novels and poetry by the major contemporary writers in Tamil....

Her most recent books are Fish in a Dwindling Lake, a translation of short stories by Ambai (2012); A Second Sunrise, poems by Cheran, translated and edited by Lakshmi Holmström & Sascha Ebeling (2012); Wild Girls, Wicked Words, a translation of poems by four Tamil women (2012). In a time of Burning, a translation of another collection of poems by Cheran, was published by Arc Publications in 2013. This won an English PEN award. In 2000 she received the Crossword Book Award for her translation of Karukku by Bama; in 2007 she shared the Crossword-Hutch Award for her translation of Ambai’s short stories, In a Forest, a Deer; and she received the Iyal Award from the Tamil Literary Garden, Canada, in 2008. She is one of the founding trustees of SADAA (South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive).

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Articles by Lakshmi Holmström

Changing Landscapes and Identities: An Introduction to Tamil Writing

By Lakshmi Holmström

So changing landscapes are also about changing identities.

Ayya’s Bicycle

“Ayya won’t come to school on his bicycle anymore from now on, it seems, da.”

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Multilingual

The Mother and the Goddess of Night

A snowstorm flings down / a million, million needles.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

A Mansion with Many Rooms

By Kutti Revathi

“As if you have to ask that low-caste boy’s permission in order to see your own mother!”

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Truth and Lies

The only thing that I lack is a single letter from you.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Multilingual

Highway

By Malathi Maithri

Along the highways / of a refugee’s life / snapshots of childhood memories / hang:

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Revolution Nathan

I thought just speaking to Nathan was like participating in a revolution.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Trespass

By Sundara Ramaswamy

It was not possible to think of the youth’s transgression as accidental.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Three Dreams

By Sharmila Seyyid

Gardens caught up and drowning / in a vortex.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Ploughing the Fields of Snow

By Thirumavalavan

You, Sun, are a wanderer in the arctic winter.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström