New Delhi (NVI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has been honoured with Sahitya Akademi Award 2019 along with 22 other writers in various languages.
Among the awards announced in 23 languages today, seven are for poetry, four for novels, six for short stories, three for essays and one each for non-fiction, autobiography and biography.
Tharoor, a former Union Minister, won the prestigious award in ‘non-fiction’ category for his book ‘An Era of Darkness’. The book talks about the effect of British rule in India and how the colonizers exploited the country.
Seven awards in poetry category were awarded to Dr. Phukan Ch. Basumatary (Bodo), Dr. Nand Kishore Acharya (Hindi), Nilba A. Khandekar (Konkani), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), V. Madhusoodanan Nair (Malayalam), Anuradha Patil (Marathi) and Prof. Penna Madhusudan (Sanskrit).
Awards in novel category were given to Dr. Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L. Birmangol Singh (Beryl Thanga) (Manipuri), Cho. Dharman (Tamil) and Bandi Narayana Swamy (Telugu).
In the short stories category, the awardees are Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Tarun Kanti Mishra (Odia), Kirpal Kazak (Punjabi), Ramsawroop Kisan (Rajasthani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali) and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi).
In the category of autography, the award was given to Dr. Vijaya (Kannada) while Prof. Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) got the honour in biography category.
Awards for books of essays were given to Dr. Chinmoy Guha (Bengali), Om Sharma Jandriari (Dogri) and Ratilal Borisagar (Gujarati).
The awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award (i.e. between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017).
The Award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- towards cash content will be presented to the authors of these books at a special function which is to be held on February 25, 2020 at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organized by Sahitya Akademi.
