Sahitya Akademi Awards in 20 languages announced

Namita Gokhale has won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 in English for her novel ‘Things to Leave Behind’; Published in 2016, in ‘Things To Leave Behind’ Gokhale explores the themes of British colonialism, caste and creed

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The Sahitya Akademi has announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 20 languages on Friday. Seven books of poetry, two novels, five short stories, two plays, one biography, one autobiography, one critique and one Epic Poetry have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021. Awards in Gujrati, Maithili, Manipuri and Urdu languages will be announced at a later date, a report in The Hindu says

Assamese writers Anuradha Sarma Pujari and Namita Gokhale have won the award in the novel category. Awardees for Poetry category include Mwdai Gahai in Bodo, Sanjiv Verenkar in Konkani, Hrushikesh Mallick in Odia and Vindeshwari Prasad in Telegu.

The awards, recommended by distinguished jury members in 20 Indian languages, were approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya ASkademi which met today under Chairmanship of Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, President of Sahitya Akademi.

Namita Gokhale has won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 in English for her novel ‘Things to Leave Behind’; Published in 2016, in ‘Things To Leave Behind’ Gokhale explores the themes of British colonialism, caste and creed. The book follows the story of Tilottama Dutt and Deok, her daughter. Commenting on winning the award, Gokhale said that she was “deeply honoured” on receiving the award  

The other winners include: Anuradha Sarma Pujari (Assamese), Bratya Basu (Bengali), Mwdai Gahai (Bodo), Raj Rahi (Dogri), Daya Prakash Sinha (Hindi), DS Nagabhushana (Kannada), Wali Mohd Aseer Kashtawari (Kashmiri), Sanjiv Verenkar (Konkani), George Onakkoor (Malayalam), Kiran Gurav (Marathi), Chhabilal Upadhyaya (Nepali), Hrushikesh Mallick (Odia), Khalid Hussain (Punjabi), Meethesh Nirmohi (Rajasthani), Vindeshwariprasad Mishr “Vinay” (Sanskrit), Niranjan Hansda (Santali), Arjun Chawla (Sindhi), Ambai (Tamil) and Gorati Venkanna (Telugu). 

Meanwhile, author Megha Majumdar won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2021 for her debut book ‘A Burning’, published in 2020. Born in India, Majumdar lives in New York where she works as an Editor in chief- Books at Catapult Story. Set in Kolkata, ‘A Burning’ is about the struggles of life in India. The book was an NYT bestseller

Anita Vachharajani won the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021 in the English language for her children’s book ‘Amrita Sher-gil: Rebel With A Paintbrush’. 

Vachharajani is a writer, editor, and library consultant. As the title suggests, her 2018 book is a biography of Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil– who is considered as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. 

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