Nationally esteemed Odia author Pratibha Ray is the 2024 recipient of the Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest’s Godrej Lifetime Achievement Award. She is one of the most reputed writers in India, and her books, while of high literary stature, are also very popular with mass readers, and have been adapted into movies, radio plays, and TV serials. 

Pioneering writer, poet, critic, researcher, and translator, Pratibha Ray has forged a transformative voice in literature in India. She shot to fame with her debut novel Barsha Basanta Baishakha in 1974. Her magnum opus Yajnaseni, which followed in 1984, revolving around the character of Draupadi in the Mahabharata, was cast in the framework of the modern-day Indian woman with her individual identity. Her literary acclaim was sealed with the publication of her epic novel Mahamoha in 2012, a bold re-telling of the Ramayana from Ahalya’s point of view, which established her mastery of nuanced interpretation and complex characters.