Thrissur: V J James's 'Nireeswaran' has won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for the best novel of 2017. Veeran Kutty's 'Mindaprani' has been selected as the best poem. The award for the best short story goes to Aymanam John's 'Itharacharacharangalude Charithrapusthakam'. The awards carry a prize money of Rs 25,000.

Lifetime achievement awards have been bestowed on Pazhavila Ramesan, M P Parameswaran, Kunjappa Pattanoor, Dr K G Poulose, K Ajitha and C L Jose. They will be awarded Rs 30,000 each.

Dr K N Panikkar and Attoor Ravi Varma have been honoured by the akademi's fellowship of Rs 50,000.

The other writers selected for the awards are S V Venugopalan Nair (play, 'Swaeshabhimani), Kalpetta Narayanan (literary critisism, 'Kavithayude Jeevithacharithram'), N J K Nair (science writing, 'Nadivijnaneeyam'), Jayachandran Mokeri (biography/autobiography, 'Thakkija Ente Jayil Jeevitham'), C V Balakrishnan (travel writing, 'Ethetho Saranikalil'), Rama Menon (translation, 'Parvathangalum Mattoli Kollunnu'), V R Sudheesh (children's literature, 'Kurukkan Mashinte School') and Chovvallur Krishnan Kutty (satire, ' Ezhuthanukaranam Anurananangalum').

Endowments awards go to P Pavithran (linguistics, 'Mathrubhashaykku Vendiyulla Samaram'), Murali Thummarukudi (essays, 'Kazhchappadukal'), P K Sreedharan (Vedic literature, 'Adwaitha Sikharam Thedi'), S Kalesh (poetry, 'Shabdamahasamudram'), Abin Joseph (anthology of stories, 'Kalyasseri Thesis'), Dr P Soman ('Marxism Laingikatha Sthreepaksham') and Sheethal Rajagopal (essay competition).

The date for the distribution of awards will be announced later.

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