9 most talked about authors of 2012
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E L James
While one author was prevented from attending a literature festival in India earlier this year, another had to face questions on his national identity as an 'Indian'; some writers became a sensation overnight with an 'erotica', others created history by winning the first-ever Nobel Prize in Literature.
In a quick recap, we discuss the many tales of authors that left an impression on us in many ways than one in terms of their narrative style, story-telling, frequent presence at festivals and of course the inevitable dramatic spats among litterateurs as occasional interludes .
Here's a list of the nine most talked about authors of 2012 (in no particular order)
1. Salman Rushdie
Not that 2012 was the year when British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie first tasted the bitter fruit of a political controversy after being denied to speak at India's most celebrated literary event in Jaipur. Controversies have trailed him like a shadow since 1988 when his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses was published. In 2012, Iran reissued the death threat against the author over an 'anti-Islam' film (Innocence of Muslims) that insulted the Prophet Mohammad in a manner quite similar to Rushdie's portrayal in The Satanic Verses. Unfazed, the author dismissed it by declaring it was, "one priest in Iran looking for a headline." Rushdie's visit to India in March to speak at the Eleventh India Today Conclave had a controversial tinge. Taking potshots at Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, Rushdie jibed he was nothing but a "better looking" version of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. His much awaited autobiography Joseph Anton: A Memoir was the next highlight. It took 11 years for the author to be confident of writing a story he had been contemplating for long; "I felt a kind of yearning to get back to an old life that was barred to me," he said in an interview. ' The Midnight's Children ' (1981) written by Rushdie was lately adapted into a movie by acclaimed director Deepa Mehta and premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
2. J K Rowling
The author who introduced 'Pottermania' with her debut novelHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that featured on the New York Times Bestselling list in 1998, Joanne Kathleen (J.K.) Rowling made a comeback with the release of her first 'adult' novel, The Casual Vacancy in 2012. Though the book received a lukewarm response in terms of evoking critical acclaim, it did raise a lot of questions on the "objectionable" representation of a Sikh woman by the author. In the novel, the character named Sukhvinder is described by her classmate as "mustachioed, yet large-mammaried, scientists remain baffled by the contradictions of the hairy man-woman"; and this choice of words by the author was condemned by Sikh communities as "provocative" and unpardonable. On a positive note, The CasualVacancy won the year's Best Fiction Award from Goodreads Choice Awards and the author received a promise from theBBC to adapt her novel for a televised series. Among other things, Rowling, along with E L James and Hilary Mantel was one of the women writers to have dominated publishing in 2012. Later in the year we also saw Rowling opposing British Prime Minister David Cameron's apathy toward Lord Justice Brian Leveson's report on Press intrusion and media ethics. It was in the wake of a scandal over tabloid phone hacking that brought Rupert Murdoch's media empire to a sudden closure besides victimising many celebrities, media figures and politicians. The inquiry had journalists target the writer's 5-year-old daughter at school and herself being forced to be driven out of her home.
3. E. L. James
From a television executive who wrote fanfiction online under the pseudonym Snowqueens Icedragon to becoming the bestselling author for her erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey , Erika Leonard (E L) James is a name that brought a wave of unprecedented yet renewed curiosity in erotic literature. Within a span of months, the sale of the Fifty Shades Trilogy reached a record-breaking figure making the Twilight series-inspired author a literary sensation in no time. What followed was a series of debates wherein one section of people comprising feminists dismissed the book as a "misogynistic manual for sexual abuse", some labelled it "mommy porn" and for other readers the fiction called for a suspension of disbelief without much scrutiny. Recently, James won the Popular Fiction Book of the year award at Specsavers National Book Awards ceremony. Unwilling to budge from the New York TimesBestseller list week after week, the year 2012 proved to be a 'Fifty Shades of Fame' for E L James.
4. Yann Martel
He won the Booker Prize in 2002 for 'Life of Pi ', a novel written off as "un-filmable" by directors who attempted its adaptation to the screen until Taiwanese film director Ang Lee resolved to make the impossible happen. It was in India that Martel got introduced to religious faith. The tale of an Indian boy shipwrecked in a boat with a tiger as his only companion assumed celluloid proportions in Ang Lee's 2012 film by the same name. Cinematography, subtle and wise application of 3D effects and conceptualisation of Yann Martel's plot resulted in a visual masterpiece. The author was so happy with the product that he has now decided to try a hand at scriptwriting. So stunning was the movie that Martel's 2001 novel featured back on the New York Times Bestseller this year.
5. Jeet Thayil
Essentially a poet, who, when penned his first novel thought his story would find its readership in a span of ten years but that's not how the plan went. When Jeet Thayil, a performance poet, librettist, guitarist and journalist, turned novelist with 'Narcopolis ' that got shortlisted for the Man Booker 2012, it seemed as if India rediscovered him as a writer who was living in obscurity till the nomination. Almost every literary festival in the country and outside invited him as a speaker to discuss Narcopolis , a novel that had received universally negative reviews in India when it was first published. In a turn of events with the Booker nomination, the reception altered and became all-positive. Narcopolis has been shortlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 from a record 108 entries. Earlier in the year during the Jaipur Literary Festival, Jeet Thayil with writer Amitava Kumar were asked to leave the premises after they read out extracts from Salman Rushdie's banned book The Satanic Verses .
6. Mo Yan
His name means 'don't speak' in Chinese. His pen name, Mo Yan (real name is Guan Moye) has its own history. It was his father who would tell him not to raise voice as a warning during the era of the 1950s which was not one of the best historical phases in China. Mo Yan may have been silenced in his growing up years but his literary works became a powerful instrument for voicing the atrocities that China faced when he was just a teen. Sexual abuse, political violence and rural life in China are the subjects that Mo Yan writes about in his novels. He became the first ever Chinese literature Nobel laureate to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2012 (though Gao Xingjian in 2000 was the first to win the award, but had taken French citizenship by the time he won). Much as the historic win called for celebration in China, there were, however, a few critics and embittered writers who felt that Mo Yan's win was a 'catastrophe' and that it reflected poorly on the judgment of the Nobel committee. Mo Yan's narrative technique employs tools of magic realism, folklore, social realism and satire that he as a writer has been inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Lu Xun.
7. Hilary Mantel
She created history by becoming the first ever woman and the first British author to win the Man Booker Prize twice. The first book in the trilogy, Wolf Hall had clinched the award in 2009 and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies took it away this year. Both her novels are narrated from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII and traces the violent and tragic downfall of Anne Boleyn. A little critical of the present day's Fifty Shades' and Harry Potters', Hilary Mantel dismissed them as 'genre' fiction and said that there is also an appetite for "serious" literature lasting more than a few seasons.
8. V.S. Naipaul
When the author ofA House for Mr. Biswas came to be part of a literary festival in Mumbai this year to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, little could he prophecy an attack that would challenge his identity as an Indian. Noted playwright and theatre artist Girish Karnad launched a tirade against Naipaul's anti-Islam views and questioned the authorities' decision to award "a man who calls Indian Muslims 'raiders' and 'marauders'". The drama did not stop here; later, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen carried forward Karnad's comment and wrote in a microblogging site, "Naipaul is a mean Islamophobe writer... If Naipaul wrote his books in one of the Indian regional languages, he would have been an unknown writer even in India". It was during the fest that Naipaul said he doesn't think he can write on India anymore; "I have written enough," the octogenarian Trinidadian- born writer and Nobel Laureate said.
9. Sunil Gangopadhyay
33 bochor katlo keu kotha rakheni(33 years have passed, nobody has kept his words) are the most remembered lines by poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay whom we lost in 2012. Author of more than 200 books spanning across six decades; he was probably one of the few writers, post the era of Rabindranath Tagore, to gain the status of a literary genius among the contemporary generation. Author Taslima Nasreen accused Sunil Gangopadhyay of "sexually harassing her and many authors" and that he was the one to initiate the ban against the launch of her book Dwikhandito (Split into two).
ipshita.mitra@indiatimes.co.in
In a quick recap, we discuss the many tales of authors that left an impression on us in many ways than one in terms of their narrative style, story-telling, frequent presence at festivals and of course the inevitable dramatic spats among litterateurs as occasional interludes .
Here's a list of the nine most talked about authors of 2012 (in no particular order)
 |
Not that 2012 was the year when British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie first tasted the bitter fruit of a political controversy after being denied to speak at India's most celebrated literary event in Jaipur. Controversies have trailed him like a shadow since 1988 when his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses was published. In 2012, Iran reissued the death threat against the author over an 'anti-Islam' film (Innocence of Muslims) that insulted the Prophet Mohammad in a manner quite similar to Rushdie's portrayal in The Satanic Verses. Unfazed, the author dismissed it by declaring it was, "one priest in Iran looking for a headline." Rushdie's visit to India in March to speak at the Eleventh India Today Conclave had a controversial tinge. Taking potshots at Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, Rushdie jibed he was nothing but a "better looking" version of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. His much awaited autobiography Joseph Anton: A Memoir was the next highlight. It took 11 years for the author to be confident of writing a story he had been contemplating for long; "I felt a kind of yearning to get back to an old life that was barred to me," he said in an interview. ' The Midnight's Children ' (1981) written by Rushdie was lately adapted into a movie by acclaimed director Deepa Mehta and premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
 |
The author who introduced 'Pottermania' with her debut novelHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone that featured on the New York Times Bestselling list in 1998, Joanne Kathleen (J.K.) Rowling made a comeback with the release of her first 'adult' novel, The Casual Vacancy in 2012. Though the book received a lukewarm response in terms of evoking critical acclaim, it did raise a lot of questions on the "objectionable" representation of a Sikh woman by the author. In the novel, the character named Sukhvinder is described by her classmate as "mustachioed, yet large-mammaried, scientists remain baffled by the contradictions of the hairy man-woman"; and this choice of words by the author was condemned by Sikh communities as "provocative" and unpardonable. On a positive note, The CasualVacancy won the year's Best Fiction Award from Goodreads Choice Awards and the author received a promise from theBBC to adapt her novel for a televised series. Among other things, Rowling, along with E L James and Hilary Mantel was one of the women writers to have dominated publishing in 2012. Later in the year we also saw Rowling opposing British Prime Minister David Cameron's apathy toward Lord Justice Brian Leveson's report on Press intrusion and media ethics. It was in the wake of a scandal over tabloid phone hacking that brought Rupert Murdoch's media empire to a sudden closure besides victimising many celebrities, media figures and politicians. The inquiry had journalists target the writer's 5-year-old daughter at school and herself being forced to be driven out of her home.
3. E. L. James
From a television executive who wrote fanfiction online under the pseudonym Snowqueens Icedragon to becoming the bestselling author for her erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey , Erika Leonard (E L) James is a name that brought a wave of unprecedented yet renewed curiosity in erotic literature. Within a span of months, the sale of the Fifty Shades Trilogy reached a record-breaking figure making the Twilight series-inspired author a literary sensation in no time. What followed was a series of debates wherein one section of people comprising feminists dismissed the book as a "misogynistic manual for sexual abuse", some labelled it "mommy porn" and for other readers the fiction called for a suspension of disbelief without much scrutiny. Recently, James won the Popular Fiction Book of the year award at Specsavers National Book Awards ceremony. Unwilling to budge from the New York TimesBestseller list week after week, the year 2012 proved to be a 'Fifty Shades of Fame' for E L James.
 |
He won the Booker Prize in 2002 for 'Life of Pi ', a novel written off as "un-filmable" by directors who attempted its adaptation to the screen until Taiwanese film director Ang Lee resolved to make the impossible happen. It was in India that Martel got introduced to religious faith. The tale of an Indian boy shipwrecked in a boat with a tiger as his only companion assumed celluloid proportions in Ang Lee's 2012 film by the same name. Cinematography, subtle and wise application of 3D effects and conceptualisation of Yann Martel's plot resulted in a visual masterpiece. The author was so happy with the product that he has now decided to try a hand at scriptwriting. So stunning was the movie that Martel's 2001 novel featured back on the New York Times Bestseller this year.
 |
Essentially a poet, who, when penned his first novel thought his story would find its readership in a span of ten years but that's not how the plan went. When Jeet Thayil, a performance poet, librettist, guitarist and journalist, turned novelist with 'Narcopolis ' that got shortlisted for the Man Booker 2012, it seemed as if India rediscovered him as a writer who was living in obscurity till the nomination. Almost every literary festival in the country and outside invited him as a speaker to discuss Narcopolis , a novel that had received universally negative reviews in India when it was first published. In a turn of events with the Booker nomination, the reception altered and became all-positive. Narcopolis has been shortlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 from a record 108 entries. Earlier in the year during the Jaipur Literary Festival, Jeet Thayil with writer Amitava Kumar were asked to leave the premises after they read out extracts from Salman Rushdie's banned book The Satanic Verses .
 |
His name means 'don't speak' in Chinese. His pen name, Mo Yan (real name is Guan Moye) has its own history. It was his father who would tell him not to raise voice as a warning during the era of the 1950s which was not one of the best historical phases in China. Mo Yan may have been silenced in his growing up years but his literary works became a powerful instrument for voicing the atrocities that China faced when he was just a teen. Sexual abuse, political violence and rural life in China are the subjects that Mo Yan writes about in his novels. He became the first ever Chinese literature Nobel laureate to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2012 (though Gao Xingjian in 2000 was the first to win the award, but had taken French citizenship by the time he won). Much as the historic win called for celebration in China, there were, however, a few critics and embittered writers who felt that Mo Yan's win was a 'catastrophe' and that it reflected poorly on the judgment of the Nobel committee. Mo Yan's narrative technique employs tools of magic realism, folklore, social realism and satire that he as a writer has been inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Lu Xun.
7. Hilary Mantel
She created history by becoming the first ever woman and the first British author to win the Man Booker Prize twice. The first book in the trilogy, Wolf Hall had clinched the award in 2009 and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies took it away this year. Both her novels are narrated from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII and traces the violent and tragic downfall of Anne Boleyn. A little critical of the present day's Fifty Shades' and Harry Potters', Hilary Mantel dismissed them as 'genre' fiction and said that there is also an appetite for "serious" literature lasting more than a few seasons.
 |
When the author ofA House for Mr. Biswas came to be part of a literary festival in Mumbai this year to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, little could he prophecy an attack that would challenge his identity as an Indian. Noted playwright and theatre artist Girish Karnad launched a tirade against Naipaul's anti-Islam views and questioned the authorities' decision to award "a man who calls Indian Muslims 'raiders' and 'marauders'". The drama did not stop here; later, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen carried forward Karnad's comment and wrote in a microblogging site, "Naipaul is a mean Islamophobe writer... If Naipaul wrote his books in one of the Indian regional languages, he would have been an unknown writer even in India". It was during the fest that Naipaul said he doesn't think he can write on India anymore; "I have written enough," the octogenarian Trinidadian- born writer and Nobel Laureate said.
 |
33 bochor katlo keu kotha rakheni(33 years have passed, nobody has kept his words) are the most remembered lines by poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay whom we lost in 2012. Author of more than 200 books spanning across six decades; he was probably one of the few writers, post the era of Rabindranath Tagore, to gain the status of a literary genius among the contemporary generation. Author Taslima Nasreen accused Sunil Gangopadhyay of "sexually harassing her and many authors" and that he was the one to initiate the ban against the launch of her book Dwikhandito (Split into two).
ipshita.mitra@indiatimes.co.in
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