Endless Song has been awarded the 2022 A.K.Ramanujan Translation Prize by the Association of Asian Studies. This is a HUGE deal for me. Previous winners include my teachers and mentors, Steven Hopkins (Swarthmore College), Martha Selby, David Shulman, and George Hart. I cannot quite grasp the enormity of this recognition, nor fully articulate by joy.
Endless Song came into this world at the start of the global pandemic. How can one concentrate on a book, promoting it, or talking about it, in the midst of so much misery, uncertainty, and difficulty? I was occupied trying to shepherd my department through the challenges of teaching and working during the pandemic, while also trying to learn how to teach effectively on Zoom. The last thing on my mind was this book. So it is especially meaningful to have this book, which took so many years to come into life, to receive not one, but two major prizes.