Malayali author Sarah Thankam Mathews has been named as a finalist for America’s highest literature award

Malayali, Sarah Thankam Mathews, who now is a resident in US, has been named to the distinguished National Book Awards shortlist.

 

One of the fiction finalists is Sarah. Her first book, ‘All This Could Be Different,’ put her in striking distance of the National Book Foundation’s coveted yearly literary awards in the United States.

 

Born in India, Sarah spent her childhood years in Oman before moving to the US at the age of 17. Her book’s lead character is also an Indian immigrant.

 

Sarah has had Margins Fellowships at The Asian American Writers Workshop and the Rona Jaffe Fellowship in fiction at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

 

She expressed her joy at being selected as one of the finalists on Twitter. Before responding to each post applauding her victory, she tweeted, ‘I’m brimming with excitement.’

 

The other contenders in the fiction category are Tess Gunty (The Rabbit Hutch), Gayl Jones (The Birdcatcher), Jamil Jan Kochai (The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories), and Alejandro Varela (The Town of Babylon).

 

Name of the winner will be revealed on November 16, the Foundation stated in a press statement.