When Abdulrazak Gurnah comes to the Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 this January, he will be coming from a major recognition and rightly so because the Tanzanian-born British author won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is one among many that he has won in close to four decades that he has been an author. With the award, he became the first Black writer to win it after American novelist Toni Morrison in 1993. Gurnah also became the first African novelist to win the award after South African writer and political activist Nadine Gordimer in 1991.  

The award was given "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". What makes the global recognition even more special is that it is extremely personal. He also admits that it has made life busier than usual in a different way for him, and understandably so. According to a 2021 New York Times report, it was hard to find Gurnah’s books for various reasons after his win, but that has now changed. “Some books were available here, and other books there but now they have new editions, and they are available more. Some books need translation. That is the most gratifying thing about this recognition,” he shares.