New Delhi: English writer and politician Shashi Tharoor and renowned Malayalam poet V Madhusoodanan Nair won the Sahitya Akademi Award on Wednesday. The award, instituted by the National Academy of Letters, is one of the highest literary awards in the country.
As many as 23 works from different languages have been chosen for the award this time. This includes seven books of poetry, four novels, six short stories, three essays and three works of non-fiction.
Madhusoodanan Nair won the award for 'Achan Piranna Veedu in the Malayalam poetry category. Tharoor's 'An Era of Darkness' won the award in the creative non-fiction category in English literature.
The seven poets who won the award include Dr Phukan Ch Basumatary (Bodo), Dr Nand Kishore Acharya (Hindi), Nilba A Khandekar (Konkani), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), V Madhusoodanan Nair, Anurasha Patil (Marathi) and Penna Mashusudan (Sandkrit).
Dr Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L Birmangol Singh (Manipuri), Cho Daman (Tamil) and Bandi Narayana Swamy (Telugu) are the novelists who won the prestigious award.
Six books of short stories written by Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Tarun Kanti Mishra (Odia), Kirpal Kazak (Punjabi), Ramaswaroop Kisan (Rajashtani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali) and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi) were also conferred the Akademi Award.
Dr Shashi Tharoor (English), Dr Vijaya (Kannada) and Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) are the writers who won the award in the creative non-fiction category.
The essays which won the prize include Dr chinmoy Guha (Bengali), Om Sharma Jandriari (Dogri) and Ratilal Borisagar (Gujarati).
The awards were recommended by distinguished jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi under the chairmanship of the academy's President Dr Chandrasekhar Kambar.
The Award, which carries an engraved copper plaque, shawl and Rs 1 lakh, will be presented to the winners on January 25, 2020 during the Festival of Letters organised by the Akademi.