Lotus Prize for Literature

The Lotus Prize for Literature (also known as Lotus International Reward for Literature or The Lotus Prize for African and Asian Literature) is a literary award presented annually to African and Asian authors by the Afro-Asian Writers' Association (also known as Association of Asian and African Writers).[1] It was established in 1969 but cancelled in 1988.[2] During this period, the Soviet Union was the sponsor of the prize.[3] After this lengthy hiatus, in November 2019, it was reinstated following the renaming of the institution as the Writers' Union of Africa, Asia, and Latin American (WUAALA).[2]

The Bureau, as the association was initially known, was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958.[4] In 1962, it moved to Cairo, with Yusuf Sibai elected general secretary.[4] The Bureau began to publish a magazine, Lotus, a forum for short stories, poetry, book reviews, and literary essays.[4] The inaugural Lotus Prize was given in 1969 to Alex La Guma, who was living in exile in London at the time.[5] After the assassination of its secretary general, the Bureau moved to Beirut, then Tunisia, and finally back to Cairo.[4] Former Arab League secretary general Lutfi El-Kholi became its secretary general and when he died, the movement began to falter.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Arana2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Maryam Fatima (August 2022). "Institutionalizing Afro-Asianism: Lotus and the (Dis) Contents of Soviet-Third World Cultural Politics". Comparative Literature Studies. 59 (3): 448. doi:10.5325/complitstudies.59.3.0447. S2CID 251852541.
  3. ^ Peter J. Kalliney (2022). The Aesthetic Cold War. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 7. doi:10.1515/9780691230641-005. ISBN 9780691230641.
  4. ^ a b c d e Mursi Saad El-Din (20 April 2006). "Plain Talk". Al Ahram. Archived from the original on 25 April 2006. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference ParekhJagne1998 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).