Indian-born author wins Multicultural  award

The Multicultural NSW( New South Wales) award in Australia was given to Indian-born author Roanna Gonsalves for her collection of short stories, “The Permanent Resident.”

Across sixteen short stories, Gonsalves talks of racism, work, marriage, family, friendship and more. She perfectly depicts the modern Indian immigration to Australia. Gonsalves, herself after graduating from St.Xavier’s college moved to Australia in 1998. One of the Judges’ comments at the NSW Premiere’s Literary Award was, ” With ‘The Permanent Resident’ Roanna Gonsalves has achieved something remarkable: a brilliant, entertaining and moving exploration of migrant life that, despite focusing on one migrant community, manages to tell universal truths.”

Multicultural NSW is a government agency in New South Wales promoting and monitoring multiculturalism. The literary award carries a 20,000 Australian dollar prize (Rs. 10 lakh), it is given to books about cultural diversity in the country.

“I am absolutely thrilled and honored to have won the multicultural award. It was a very strong shortlist and I feel I got very lucky. I was over the moon when I heard my name.” said Gonsalves to broadcaster SBS. Gonsalves has a PhD from the University of New South Wales, and has been facilitating and teaching creative writing workshops for all ages within communities as well as at schools and in the university sector for many years.