The Sahitya Akademi on Thursday announced its awards for 2021 for literary works in 20 languages, including novels in Assamese and English by Anuradha Sarma Pujari and Namita Gokhale respectively.
In a statement, the national academy of letters said seven books of poetry, five of short stories, two plays, one each of biography, autobiography, criticism and epic poetry had won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021. The awards for works in Gujarati, Maithili, Manipuri and Urdu would be announced at a later date, it said. The award ceremony would also be held later.
Ms. Gokhale was awarded for her novel Things to Leave Behind and Ms. Pujari for Iyat Ekhan Aaronya Asil.
Poets in list
Among the winners for poetry were Mwdai Gahai (Bodo), Sanjiv Verenkar (Konkani), Hrushikesh Mallick (Odia), Meethesh Nirmohi (Rajasthani), Vindeshwariprasad Mishr ‘Vinay’ (Sanskrit), Arjun Chawla (Sindhi) and Gorati Venkanna (Telugu).
Books of short stories by writers Raj Rahi (Dogri), Kiran Gurav (Marathi), Khalid Hussain (Punjabi), Niranjan Hansda (Santali) and Ambai (Tamil) were among those chosen for the awards.
A biography by D.S. Nagabhushana in Kannada, an autobiography by George Onakkoor in Malayalam, a work of criticism by Wali Mohd. Aseer Kashtawari in Kashmiri and a book of epic poetry by Chhabilal Upadhyaya in Nepali were awarded as well. Two plays — by Bratya Basu in Bengali and Daya Prakash Sinha in Hindi — were selected for the award.