Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla was conferred with the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature-2023 on March 2. The annual award founded in collaboration with Vladimir Nobakov Literary Foundation is given to a living author whose work, written or translated into English, is of “enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship”. Well-known in the realm of Hindi literature, Shukla’s writings deal with class and wealth issues. They are about the poor who struggle to survive in a capitalist world. “Whatever I have written is reality. I cannot separate my imagination from reality,” says Shukla.