Sahitya honours for Punjabi , Kashmiri poets

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 19

Sahitya Akademi today announced the names of literary figures to be honoured during its function “Festival of Letters” on March 9.

Among those who have made it to the coveted list from the region are Jaswinder and Shad Ramzan for their poetical works — “Agarbatti” (Punjabi) and “Kore Kakud Pushrith Gome” (Kashmiri), respectively. “Hashiye Par” (Dogri) has made the prestigious award a reality for noted novelist Shailender Singh.

Other gifted poets chosen for the honour for 2014 are Munawwar Rana for “Shahdaba” (Urdu), Gope Kamal for “Sija Agyaan Buku” (Sindhi), Utpal Kumar Basu for “Piya Mana Bhabe” (Bengali), Urkhao Gwra Brahma for “Udangnifrai Gidingfinnanei” (Bodo), Gopalkrushna Rath for “Bipula Diganta” (Odia) and Adil Jussawalla for “Trying to Say Goodbye”(English).

Novelists who bagged the country’s highest literary honour this year are Ramesh Chandra Shah for “Vinayak” (Hindi), Subhash Chandran for “Manushyanu Oru Aamukham” (Malayalam), Asha Mishra for “Uchat” (Maithili) and Poomani for “Agngnaadi” (Tamil).

Late photographer Ashvin Mehta (Gujarati); well-known poet, writer and professor GH Nayak (Kannada) and author and critic Madhavi Sardesai (Konkani) have made it for their books of essay writings — “Chhabi Bhitarani”, “Uttaraardha” and “Manthan”, respectively. Arupa Patangia Kalita (Assamese), Nanda Hankhim (Nepali) and Rampal Singh Rajpurohit (Rajasthani) have made it to the top list for their books of short stories — “Mariam Astin Athaba Hira Barua”, “Satta Grahan” and “Sundar Nain Sudha”, respectively. Jayant Vishnu Naralikar (Marathi) is going to receive the honour for his autobiography titled “Chaar Nagarantale Maaze Viswa”, Jamadar Kisku (Santali) for his play, “Mala Mudam”, and Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy (Telugu) for his writing belonging to literary criticism genre, “Mana Navalalu- Mana Kathanikalu”.

There are eight books of poetry, five novels, three of essays, three of short stories and one each of literary criticism, autobiography and play that have won the Sahitya Akademi Award this year in 22 languages.