Ananda Devi to Headline 2024 Neustadt Lit Fest at OU

October 3, 2024

by The Editors of WLT

A photograph of Ananda Devi

Photo by J.-F. Paga (Grasset)

World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, will confer the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature on the Mauritian writer Ananda Devi during the Neustadt Lit Fest, scheduled Oct. 21–23. Devi will receive the $50,000 prize, the Neustadt silver eagle feather and a certificate at a ceremony at the University of Oklahoma featuring a welcome by OU President Joseph Harroz Jr.

The public is invited to the festival in Devi’s honor on the OU Norman campus, where Devi and other participating writers, artists and scholars will make presentations about francophone literature and culture as well as feminist themes in her work.

Robert Con Davis-Undiano, WLT’s executive director, commented that “it is long overdue for Ananda Devi to receive an international honor of this magnitude. She is deserving, and I hope that this honor will be a springboard to more recognition for her amazing work.”

Kathy Neustadt will announce the winner of the 2025 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at a reception scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Beaird Lounge, Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave. This year’s NSK Prize jury will also present readings of their work at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in OMU’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.

All events are free and open to the public. The complete schedule and additional details can be found on the Neustadt website. For those who cannot attend in person, archived videos of the entire lit fest will be posted on WLT’s YouTube channel.

Established in 1927, the World Literature Today organization serves the international, state and university communities by achieving excellence as a literary publication, a sponsor of literary prizes and a humanities center for students. For questions about the prize, the 2024 Lit Fest, or WLT, contact Terri Stubblefield or RC Davis-Undiano. For accommodations, please call 405-325-4531..