Susan Daniel from Ooty has won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of translation to English. She translated the 110 page Kannada classic ‘Kusumabale’ into English and published the English translation four years ago.
Susan was pleasantly surprised to receive the award after 4 years. She was born in Kerala and brought up in Karnataka. She taught English at the Mysore University and settled in Ooty after her retirement. She had read the Kannada novel ‘Kusumabale’ about three decades ago but came to know that it was not yet translated into English only five years back when she decided to translate it herself. Her aim was to popularise the novel and allow people in other parts of the country to read the wonderful novel. She suggested that schools give importance to language skills to strengthen literature culture as it played a very important role in the development of one’s personality.
