Sahitya Akademi announces annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages

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New Delhi : Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages on December 18, 2019. Seven books of poetry, four of novel, six of short stories, three of essays and one each of non-fiction, autobiography and biography have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2019.​

The Awards were recommended by distinguished Jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met on December 18 under the Chairmanship of Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, SahityaAkademi.

Seven books of poetry awarded were of 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).

Four novels awarded were of Dr. Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L Birmangol Singh (Beryl Thanga) (Manipuri),  Cho. Dharman (Tamil), and Bandi Narayana Swamy (Telugu).

Six books of short stories awarded were of  Sri Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Tarun Kanti Mishra (Odia), Kirpal Kazak (Punjabi), Ram sawroop Kisan (Rajasthani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali), and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi).

Dr. Shashi Tharoor (English), Dr. Vijaya(Kannada) and Prof. Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) have won for each of their works on creative non-fiction, autobiography and biography respectively. Three books of essays were awarded to Dr. Chinmoy Guha (Bengali), Om Sharma Jandriari (Dogri), and Ratilal Borisagar (Gujarati).​​​​

The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a Jury of three members in the languages concerned  in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose.  According to the procedure, the Executive Board declared the Awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the Jurors or selection made on the basis of majority vote.  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 to be held on 25 February 25, 2020, in New Delhi during the Festival of Letters to be organised by Sahitya Akademi, according to a PIB release.