New Delhi Dec 30 PTI Eminent author Namita Gokhale TMC MLA Bratya Basu and noted Punjabi writer Khalid Hussian were among the 20 names announced for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 on Thursday The annual awards given in 20 Indian languages included seven books of poetry two novels five short stories two plays one book each of biography autobiography criticism and epic poetry While Gokhale won the award for her 2016 historical epic novel Things to Leave Behind Basu and Hussain won the awards for a play and collection of short stories Sullan Da Salan respectively Deeply honoured by the Sahitya Akademi Award for English 2021 for my novel Things To Leave Behind Feel a deep sense of pride and gratitude to belong to the vibrant Indian literatures ManyLanguagesOneLiterature sahityaakademi PenguinIndia JaipurLitFest tweeted Gokhale The awards for Gujarati Maithili Manipuri and Urdu languages will be announced at a later date the Akademi said in a statement Mwdal Gahai Bodo Sanjiv Verenkar Konkani Hrushikesh Mallick Odia Meethesh Nirmohi Rajasthani Vindeshwariprasad Mishr Vinay Sanskrit Arjun Chawia Sindhi and Gorati Venkannat Telugu were named as winners for poetry Apart from Hussain the others who won the award for short stories include Raj Rahi Dogri Kiran Gurav Marathi Niranjan Hansda Santali and Ambai Tamil Other winners of the award are DS Nagabhushana Kannada for a biography George Onakkoor Malayalam for an autobiography Daya Prakash Sinha Hindi for a play Wali Mohd Aseer Kashtawari Kashmiri for criticism Anuradha Sarma Pujari Assamese for novel and Chhabilal Upadhyaya Nepali for epic poetry 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 purpose According to the procedure the Executive Board declared the awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the jurors or selection made on the basis of majority vote The awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award between January 1 2015 and December 31 2019 the Akademi said The award which will include a casket containing an engraved copper plaque a shawl and an amount of Rs 100000 will be presented at the award presentation function which will be held at a later date PTI ASG MG AAR AAR

New Delhi Dec 30 PTI Eminent author Namita Gokhale TMC MLA Bratya Basu and noted Punjabi writer Khalid Hussian were among the 20 names announced for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 on Thursday The annual awards given in 20 Indian languages included seven books of poetry two novels five short stories two plays one book each of biography autobiography criticism and epic poetry While Gokhale won the award for her 2016 historical epic novel Things to Leave Behind Basu and Hussain won the awards for a play and collection of short stories Sullan Da Salan respectively Deeply honoured by the Sahitya Akademi Award for English 2021 for my novel Things To Leave Behind Feel a deep sense of pride and gratitude to belong to the vibrant Indian literatures ManyLanguagesOneLiterature sahityaakademi PenguinIndia JaipurLitFest tweeted Gokhale The awards for Gujarati Maithili Manipuri and Urdu languages will be announced at a later date the Akademi said in a statement Mwdal Gahai Bodo Sanjiv Verenkar Konkani Hrushikesh Mallick Odia Meethesh Nirmohi Rajasthani Vindeshwariprasad Mishr Vinay Sanskrit Arjun Chawia Sindhi and Gorati Venkannat Telugu were named as winners for poetry Apart from Hussain the others who won the award for short stories include Raj Rahi Dogri Kiran Gurav Marathi Niranjan Hansda Santali and Ambai Tamil Other winners of the award are DS Nagabhushana Kannada for a biography George Onakkoor Malayalam for an autobiography Daya Prakash Sinha Hindi for a play Wali Mohd Aseer Kashtawari Kashmiri for criticism and Chhabilal Upadhyaya Nepali for epic poetry 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 purpose According to the procedure the Executive Board declared the awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the jurors or selection made on the basis of majority vote The awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award between January 1 2015 and December 31 2019 the Akademi said The award which will include a casket containing an engraved copper plaque a shawl and an amount of Rs 100000 will be presented at the award presentation function which will be held at a later date PTI ASG MG AAR

New Delhi Oct 28 PTI A new anthology assimilates varied genres of Amrita Pritams writing with the works in this collection handpicked by the illustrious litterateur before her demiseThe Ninth Flower Best of Amrita Pritam transcreated from Hindi by author-biographer Jyoti Sabharwal is brought out by Stellar Publishers to mark her 16th death anniversaryThe collection is also inclusive of some of her hitherto unpublished works that she entrusted to Sabharwal one morning in mid-2004Though frail and ailing she seemed to be charged about something I noticed a pile of books by her side on the bed She pushed this pile towards me and said with that familiar smile Take my work forward Translate these selected works that Ive handpicked for you Try and accomplish it while I am still around Sabharwal recallsPritam had chosen for the collection what she thought was the best among the litany of all her genres - novelettes poems short stories introspective essays and orations - and also proposed the title The Ninth FlowerAgony and ecstasy are two frenetic states of a mystical spirit and Pritam infused that spirit in her poetic prose and verses A creative genius a legend in her lifetime she touched the heart and soul of bibliophiles with reflective allusions to mythology and history and also delved in the metaphysical sphere with parables and similesBe it the resonance of romantic poetry and longing the heart-rending tales of Partition or contemplative essays her ingenious artistry of words and imagery converged in the spiritual realmThis confluence was facilitated by her vision as a quintessential Sufi seeking cosmic amalgamation in the stream of consciousnessAs she wrote incessantly her virtuosity surpassed these epithets - the Grande Dame of Punjabi literature - the Prima Donna of contemporary rebelsHer works have been translated in over 30 regional and foreign languages But her literary luminosity transcended all the national and international laurels conferred on her - be it the Padma Shri Padma Vibhushan Bharatiya Jnanpith Award Vaptsarov Award and Order of Saints Cyril Methodius Bulgaria Ordre des Arts et des Lettres France nomination to Rajya Sabha the first woman poet to have been bestowed the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956 as also Sahitya Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement - for her ultimate desire was to offer an incisive insight into her inner worldThe book has a foreword by former diplomat and Sahitya Akademi Award winner M MukundanThis is a cohesive and compelling work on Amrita Pritam - a godsend tome for those who love to engage with her mind he writesThe book is slated for release early next month PTI ZMN RDS RDS

New Delhi Sep 18 PTI Politician-writer M Veerappa Moily and poet Arundhathi Subramaniam were among the 20 authors who received the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2020 at a ceremony here on Saturday While Moily received the prestigious award for his epic poetry Sri Bahubali Ahimsadigvijayam in Kannada Subramaniam won the award for her poetry collection When God is a Traveller in English The other winners in poetry include Harish Meenakshi Gujarati Anamika Hindi RS Bhaskar Konkani Irungbam Deven Manipuri Rupchand Hansda Santali and Nikhileswar Telugu Nanda Khare Marathi Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam Sanskrit Imaiyam Tamil and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque bagged the award for their novels Apurba Kumar Saikia Assamese late Dharanidhar Owari Bodo late Hiday Koul Bharti Kashmiri Kamalkant Jha Maithili and Gurdev Singh Rupana Punjabi have received the award for short stories The Akademi has named Gian Singh Dogri and Jetho Lalwani Sindhi the winners for their plays while Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay popularly known as Shankar received the award for memoir Bengali The award which includes a casket containing an engraved copper plaque a shawl and an amount of Rs 100000 was presented at the award presentation function The executive board also announced the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize 2020 in 24 Indian languages on Saturday The English translation of Kannada novel Ghachar Ghochar written by Vivek Shanbhag and translated by Srinath Perur and the Hindi translation of Thiruvalluvars Thirukkural by T E S Raghwan won the award among 22 others The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the Selection Committees of three members each in the concerned languages in accordance with the rules and procedure laid down for the purpose the National Academy of Letters said in a statement The translation prize carries an amount of Rs 50000 and a copper plaque which will be presented to the translators of each of these books at a special function to be held sometime later this year it said PTI MAH SMN