Anita Desai, Xue Yiwei to receive awards at Blue Metropolis Festival
Celebrated Indian author Anita Desai will accept the 2017 Blue Metropolis Grand Prix, a lifetime achievement award, at Montreal's annual Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival.
Desai has written 17 novels, novellas and children's books and has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize three times: in 1980 for Clear Light of Day, in 1984 for In Custody and in 1999 for Fasting, Feasting.
CBC's Eleanor Wachtel will interview Desai at the festival, which takes place from April 24 to 30.
Xue Yiwei, a bestselling author in China who lives in Montreal, is honoured for his English-language debut Shenzheners, which was translated by Darryl Sherk. He'll receive the Blue Metropolis Literary Diversity Prize for a First Publication on April 29.
Imbolo Mbue won the Blue Met Words to Change Prize. Mbue debuted on the literary scene with the acclaimed Behold the Dreamers in 2016.
David Treuer, an Ojibwe writer from Minnesota, will receive the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize. His books include Prudence and The Translation of Dr. Apelles.
American novellist Francisco Goldman will accept the Premio Metropolis Azul for a body of work that explores Spanish-language culture. Goldman grew up in the U.S., but has spent years covering events in his mother's native Guatemala and other countries in central America. His books include The Ordinary Seaman and The Interior Circuit.