Poets dominated this year’s Sahitya Akademi award winners with eight of their books chosen for the honours in 24 categories of literature.The poets honoured were: Praduman Singh Jindrahia (Dogri), Kailash Vajpeyi (Hindi), Jess Fernandes (Konkani), Raghu Leishangthem (Manipuri), Vasant Abaji Dahake (Marathi), Phani Mohanty (Oriya), Damayanti Beshra (Santhali) and Puviarasu (Tamil).
The awardees for their collection of short stories include Vaidehi (Kannada), the late Manmohan Jha (Maithili), Samiran Chhetri ‘Priyadarshi’ (Nepali), Major Ratan Jangid (Rajasthani), Prashasya Mitra Shastri (Sanskrit) and Anand Khemani (Sindhi).
Well-known novelists Dhrubajyoti Bora (Assamese), the late Manoranjan Lahary (Bodo), U. A. Khadar (Malayalam) and Yarlagadda Laxmi Prasad (Telugu) were also honoured with the awards for 2009, Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, Agrahara Krishna Murthy, said.
The Akademi also announced ‘Bhasha Samman’ for 2008, to Vishwanath Khaire and Surendranath Satapathy in the field of classical and medieval literature. Mr. Murthy said the government had agreed in principle to increase the Sahitya Akademi award cash prize from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh. The Akademi had decided to honour authors of children’s literature from this year.
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Image Source: Alex Wendes