Odisha's Tarun Kanti Mishra To Receive Sahitya Akademi Award 2019

New Delhi: Noted Odia story writer and former Chief Secy of Odisha, Tarun Kanti Mishra to be conferred with Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award 2019. Mishra will receive the prestigious award for his book 'Bhaswati'.

"The awards were recommended by distinguished jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met today under the Chairmanship of Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, Sahitya Akademi," K Sreenivasarao, Secretary of the Akademi, said in a statement.

Politician-writer Shashi Tharoor and playwright Nand Kishore Acharya are among other writers who will be bestowed with the award this year. While Tharoor won the award for his book "An Era of Darkness" in English, Acharya will receive the recognition for his book of Hindi poetry, "Chheelatey Hue Apne Ko".

Seven poets will be given the award -- Phukan Ch. Basumatary (Bodo), Nand Kishore Acharya (Hindi), Niba A Khandekar (Konkani), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), V Madhusoodanan Nair (Malayalam), Anuradha Patil (Marathi), and Penna Madhusudan (Sanskrit).

Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L Birmangol Singh (Manipuri), Cho Dharman (Tamil) and Bandi Narayan Swami (Telugu) will receive the award for their novels.

Five authors will get the recognition in short story category -- Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Kripal Kazak (Punjabi), Ramswaroop Kisan (Rajasthani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali), and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi).

Shashi Tharoor (English), Vijaya (Kannada) and Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) have won the award for their work on creative non-fiction, autobiography and biography respectively.

Three books of essay by Chinmoy Guha (Bengali), Om Sharma Jandriari (Dogri), and Ratilal Borisagar (Gujarati) were also named for the prestigious award.

The winners will receive an engraved copper plate and Rs 1 lakh cash prize at a special function on February 25, 2020, in Delhi.

(PTI)