Sarah Joseph

Sarah Joseph Biography

Among the female writers of Kerala and her position among female novelists is just below Madhavikutty. Her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal has won Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Academy Award and Vayalar award. For her collection of short stories titled Papathara, she won Muttathu Varkey Award in the year 2011. Sarah is the founder of Manushi, a women organization and has been at the forefront of the feminist movement in Kerala. Her works are essentially liberalistic, convey social message and powerful enough to exhibit the hidden feelings of suppressed group.

Sarah Joseph was born in 1946 in a conservative Christian family of Kuriyachira, Thrissur. After teacher’s training course, she took teaching as her profession. Then she took MA Malayalam and served as a Professor of Malayalam at Sanskrit College, Pattambi. As a writer her career began at high school level and she started with poems. Her poems got published in magazines at that time. She is versified in reciting poems and has got appreciations from great poets like Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon and Edasseri Govindan Nair. But later she changed her path and concentrated on to novels, thus becoming one of the leading female writers of Malayalam. Her collection of short stories Paapathara is filled with feminist thoughts and this work is regarded as the best feminist novel of Malayalam.

Her short story collections include - Manassile Thee Matram, Kadinte Sangeetham, Paapathara, Oduvilathe Suryakanthi, Nilavu Nirayunnu, Puthuramayanam, Kaadithu Kandaayo Kaanthaa and Nanmathinmakalude Vriksham. Her published novels are Thaikulam, Aalahayude Penmakkal, Othappu, Ooru Kaval, Aathi and Maattaathi. Aalahayude Penmakkal, Mattathi, and Othappu were published as a trilogy. Among her works, Othappu has been translated to English and it was done by Valson Thampu titled "Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side". Her subversive reading of Ramayana, ‘Ramayana Kathakal’ also needs special mention that has won much critical acclaim. Puthuramayanam and Oduvilathe Suryakanthi are her noted works.

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Updated: October 24, 2013