Meena Kandasamy receives the Hermann Kesten Prize from the German PEN Center. Born in 1984, the Indian feminist writer and activist campaigns for the rights of Dalits, the lowest ranking in India’s caste system. He belongs to the Tamil people, from whose language he translated literature into English. The reason given is that Meena Kandasamy is a fearless fighter for democracy and human rights, for free speech and against oppression of landless people, minorities and Dalits in India,” not ‘Miss Pleasant’, more than ‘Ms Militancy’ , like one of his books.” The Kesten Prize, which has been awarded with 20,000 euros since this year, will be presented to him on November 19 at the Staatstheater Darmstadt; Felicitas Hoppe holds a speech of praise. At the same time, the Kesten sponsorship prize, which is awarded every two years, goes to the online platform “NextWrite .jetzt”, where writers from war zones and crises coming to Germany can publish texts. The award is now linked to a prize money of 5,000 euros. The PEN Center received prize money from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Arts.
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