Writers' Trust of Canada
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Anita Rau

Badami

Anita Rau Badami wrote Tamarind Woman and The Hero's Walk, which won the Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Italy's Premio Berto, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was named a Washington Post Best Book. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? was released in 2006 and was longlisted for the IMPAC Award and named a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. The recipient of the Marian Engel Award, Badami is also a visual artist. She lives in Montreal.

Writers & Books

Award History

2000 - Winner

Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award

Jury Citation

“Among Anita Rau Badami’s many gifts as a writer is her fluency of expression, a ‘natural’ style which is flowing and easy-going without losing tautness of precision. As one juror put it ‘she has a true writer’s ear.’ The jury was impressed by her ability, while using the traditional novel form, to do unpredictable things with it and also with her empathy for her characters while maintaining a clear-eyed view of them. Textured, finely-detailed, and rich with figurative language, her novels nonetheless have a wider scope than family drama, raising issues of cultural differences, of economic disparities and of social justice. They reveal, too, a deep understanding of how families and societies work.” — 2000 Marian Engel Award Jury (Sharon Butala, Janice Kulyk Keefer and Michael Redhill)

Juror History