Sahitya Akademi honours writers

SD Sharma

Chandigarh, April 20

The Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (CSA) honoured 31 writers during a function at Punjab Kala Bhawan here today.

Chief guest Prof Vishwanath Prasad Tewari, former president of the National Sahitya Akademi, presented awards to the writers in different segments for their literary creations.

Five writers were given the award of recognition, which included a citation, a shawl and a cash prize of Rs 51,000 each. Those who were honoured include Om Parkash Vasishta, author of over two dozen Punjabibooks; Dr Chaman Lal Ahuja, author of seven collections of Urdu poems and eight one-act plays; Dr Prasoon Prasad, author of 10 books of diverse Hindi literary genres; Prof Tejwant Singh Gill, author of five books of English and 10 of literary criticism and Prof Virendra Kumar Alankar, author of 18 Sanskrit books. 

Those honoured with best books award include Masha Kaur for her novel ‘Sohni Mahiwal’ in English and Dr SS Bhatti for poetry book ‘Shuoor-i- Bekhudi’ in Urdu. Besides, authors Dr Shashi Prabha (novel), Dr Amarjit Amar (poetry), Pragya Sharda (story) and Anita Surbhi (children literature) were honoured.

Best book awardees for Punjabi include Daljit Kaur Saini, Narender Pal Singh Komal, Subhash Sharma. and Jang Bahadur Goyal. Besides, Arvinder Johal was awarded best translation award for Punjabi translation of AS Dullat’s book ‘Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years’.