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Ghosh’s ‘Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories’ is in the running along with five other international titles for the prize open to authors of any nationality based anywhere in the world and working in any language, provided that the nominated work is available in the English language.
The Kolkata-born author, who is based in the US, was hailed by the judges for his “storytelling skills to bring to life this highly readable travelogue, memoir and history”.
“In ‘Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories’, Amitav Ghosh draws on decades of archival research for his Ibis Trilogy novels to trace the economic and cultural impact of the global opium trade from the 18th century to the present-day opium crisis and the Oxycontin scandal in the USA,” notes a British Academy Book Prize statement.
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Marcy Norton for ‘The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492’; Ross Perlin for ‘Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues’; and Annabel Sowemimo for ‘Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare’.
“This year’s exceptional shortlist highlights a wide range of topics: the secret world of raw materials; race and the healthcare system; endangered languages; a global history of the opium trade; the origins of mathematics and its unsung trailblazers; and relationships between humans and animals in the context of colonisation,” said Chair of Judges Professor Charles Tripp, Fellow of the British Academy.
“We were greatly impressed by the quality of writing and the depth of research but also by the lengths our writers are prepared to go to highlight urgent global issues and to honour those who have made a difference. At a time when it feels as if global cultural understanding is somewhat lacking, we hope the British Academy Book Prize and these six books will play a part in changing the way we perceive our shared world,” he said.
Tripp is joined on the 2024 judging panel by journalist and broadcaster Ritula Shah; Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University; Professor Rebecca Earle, food historian and Professor of History at the University of Warwick; and former BBC foreign correspondent Bridget Kendall.
The winner of this year’s GBP 25,000 prize is set to be announced at an awards ceremony in London on October 22, with each of the shortlisted writers to receive GBP 1,000.
Last year’s winner was Indian-origin author Nandini Das for ‘Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire’. A digital exhibition of photographs by Kolkata-based artist, curator and educator Arko Datto was specially commissioned to bring to life the themes of Das’ winning title, which is being showcased at the British Academy as part of London’s Open House Festival on Sunday.
“It has been exhilarating for me to see aspects of the book refracted through Arko’s lens as he moved through some of the same spaces that I had approached primarily through 400-year-old records. At the same time, it has reminded me repeatedly – with precision, empathy, and humour – how closely the past and the present are interwoven into the very fabric of everyday life in present-day India,” said Das.
“I am delighted to be commissioned by the British Academy, Panos Pictures and Hawthornden Foundation to create a photographic response to Nandini’s incredible book. India’s motley mix of complexities, contradictions and contrasts provides a rich canvas for this,” said Datto.
“Exploring hitherto unseen parts of the country, seeing its people and places anew, helped me approach the contemporary and the historical in exciting new ways. I hope the audience discovers traces of the incredible moments I experienced during this project,” the artist added.
The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, with a mission to mobilise these disciplines to promote a better understanding of the world and shape a brighter future.