Antarjanam, Lalitambika (1909—)

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Antarjanam, Lalitambika (1909—)

Indian author. Born in 1909 in Kerala, India; daughter of poets.

Though her formal education was limited, Lalitambika Antarjanam received a literary upbringing from her parents, both poets, in their hometown of Kerala, a southern state of India. As an adult, Antarjanam was active in the Indian effort for independence from Britain, working with both the Indian National Congress and the Marxist Party of Kerala. Her poetry and fiction bear her political and social reformist ideas and are written primarily in her native language of Malayalam. The author's only novel, Agnisaksi (Testimony of Fire), received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976 as the best literary work of the year. Antarjanam's credits also include nine collections of short fiction, six volumes of verse, and several children's books.