Mohsin Hamid is definitely one of the best authors Pakistan has to offer. Hamid’s latest novel Exit West won the author the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2018. The inaugural awards were held in New York on April 10.
“Exit West is a novel about migration and how the world is changing — and could change — and how we are all migrants, and how we can find an optimistic future together,” Hamid remarked in his acceptance speech at the ceremony.
“I’m really grateful to be honoured by this prize in particular, which is a prize that looks to books to have an impact on the world.”
The author was awarded $35,000 as prize money.
The Aspen Words Literary Prize is an annual award for an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.
Among its many other nominations, Exit West has been nominated for LA Times Book Prize and was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Earlier this year, Mohsin was also awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz for his services to the field of literature.