Sahitya Akademi Awards 2014 conferred!

Sahitya Akademi recently declared the Sahitya Akademi Award 2014. Eight books of poetry, five of novels, three of essays, three of short stories, one each of literary criticism, autobiography and play have won the coveted award this year.

Famous poets honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award for the year 2014 are Utpal Kumar Basu (Bengali), Urkhao Gwra Brahma (Bodo), Adil Jussawalla (English), Shad Ramzan (Kashmiri), Gopalkrushna Rath (Odia), Jaswinder (Punjabi), Gope Kamal (Sindhi) and Munawwar Rana (Urdu).

The well-known novelists Shailender Singh (Dogri), Ramesh Chandra Shah (Hindi), Subhash Chandran, (Malayalam) Asha Mishra (Maithili) and Poomani (Tamil) are among those honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2014 as well.

Late Ashvin Mehta (Gujarati), GH Nayak (Kannada) and Madhavi Sardesai (Konkani) have got the Award for their books of essays. Arupa Patangia Kalita (Assamese), Nanda Hankhim (Nepali) and Rampal Singh Rajpurohit (Rajasthani) have got the Award for their books of short stories while Jayant Vishnu Naralikar (Marathi) for his autobiography, Jamadar Kisku (Santali) for his play and Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy (Telugu) for his literary criticism have been honoured.

The Shitya Akademi Awards 2014 were recommended by distinguished jury members representing 22 Indian languages and approved by the executive board of the Sahitya Akademi under the chairmanship of Dr Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, president of the Sahitya Akademi.

The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members in the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure laid down for. The Awards relate to books first published during the three years immediately preceding the year of Award (i.e., between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012).

The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1,00,000 will be presented to the authors of these books at a special function to be held on March 9, 2015 at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organised by Sahitya Akademi.