In 1962, Lakshmi published her first work Nandimalai Charalilae – written when she was still a teenager. Her first serious work of fiction was the Tamil novel Andhi Maalai which came out in 1966. It received the "Kalaimagal Narayanaswamy Aiyar" Prize. She received critical acclaim with the short storySiragukal muriyum published in the literary magazine Kanaiyazhi. This story was later published in book form as a part of short story collection under the same name in 1976. The same year she was awarded a two-year fellowship to study the work of Tamil women writers. The research work was published as The Facebehind the mask in 1984. In 1988, her second Tamil short story collection titled Veetin mulaiyil oru samaiyalarai was published. This established her reputation as a major short story writer. Her work is characterised by her feminism, an eye for detail, and a sense of irony. Some of her works – A Purple Sea and In A Forest, A Deer – have been translated English by Lakshmi Holmström. In 2006, she won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award for In a Forest, A Deer. For her contributions to Tamil literature, she received the 2008 Iyal Virudhu awarded by the Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden.
Academic career
Lakshmi has been an independent researcher in the field of women's studies for over thirty years. She uses the pen name Ambai for publishing Tamil fiction and her real name for publishing her research work and other articles in newspapers like The Hindu and The Times of India and in journals like Economic and Political Weekly. In 1992, she was a visiting fellow in the University of Chicago's Institute for Culture and Consciousness. She was instrumental in the establishment of Roja Muthiah Research Library by persuading the University to acquire Roja Muthaiah Chettiar's collection of books and other published material. She has been a research Officer in the Indian Council of Historical Research and a college lecturer in New Delhi. In the 1990s, she worked in two research projects – Illustrated Social History of Women in Tamil Nadu sponsored by the Ford Foundation and An Idiom of Silence: An Oral History and Pictoral Study sponsored by the Homi J. Bhabha fellowship. The resulting research has been published as two volumes of the Seven seas & seven mountains series. The first volume,The Singer and the Song, is a collection of interviews with women musicians and the second volume, Mirrors and Gestures, is a collection of interviews with women dancers. In 1988, Lakshmi founded SPARROW a non-governmental organisation for documenting and archiving the work of female writers and artists. SPARROW has published a number of books on women artists and writers. As of 2009, she continues to be the organisation's Director and a member of its board of trustees. She is a current member of the University of Michigan's Global Feminisms Project. She considers herself as a "feminist who has lived without compromise".
Books in English
The Face behind the mask : Women in Tamil literature, Stosius Inc/Advent Books Division
A Purple Sea, Affiliated East-West Press
Body blows: women, violence, and survival : three plays, Seagull Books
Seven seas & seven mountains : Volume 1 : The Singer and the Song — Conversations with Women Musicians, Kali for Women
Seven seas & seven mountains : Volume 2 : Mirrors and Gestures – Conversations with Women Dancers, Kali for Women
The Unhurried City – Writings on Chennai, Kali for Women
In A Forest, A Deer: Stories By Ambai, Katha
A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge: Sudha Gupta Investigates, Juggernaut
