Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi)
IndiaAbout
Ambai is the pen name of C. S. Lakshmi (born 1944), an influential Tamil writer, feminist scholar, and researcher from India. Her fiction explores women’s experiences, examining the tensions between personal independence and social expectations, as well as the complexities of love, sexuality, family, and cultural identity. Known for her experimental storytelling, lyrical prose, and attention to the details of everyday life, she often gives voice to women whose desires and frustrations are overlooked in conventional narratives. Alongside her literary career, Ambai has researched the representation of women in Indian literature. In 1988, she founded SPARROW—the Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women—a Mumbai-based organisation dedicated to documenting and preserving women’s lives and creative work. Her notable collections include In a Forest, a Deer and A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge. She received India’s Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for her Tamil short-story collection Sivappu Kazhuthudan Oru Pachai Paravai.
