Writer Arundhati Roy has been awarded the 45th European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement, the Charles Veillon Foundation has announced.

• Ms. Roy has been awarded the prize for the French translation of her compilation of essays titled "Azadi" (2021).
• In "Azadi", Roy has reflected on the meaning of freedom in a world of "growing authoritarianism". The essays include meditations on language, public as well as private, and on the role of fiction and alternative imaginations in current times.
• The Delhi-based author's works, including Booker Prize winning "The God of Small Things", "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness", and "My Seditious Heart" have garnered her national and international acclaim.
• Ms. Roy will receive the award, along with the prize money of CHF 20,000 (approx ?18 lakh), at a ceremony on September 12 in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
• Since its inception in 1975, the award by the Charles Veillon Foundation has honoured a book or the work of an author "who, through their writings, contributes to nourishing and spreading the evolution of thought".