Shashi Tharoor, Nand Kishore Acharya to receive Sahitya Akademi Award 2019; win Rs 1 lakh cash prize

NEW DELHI: Politician-writer Shashi Tharoor and playwright Nand Kishore Acharya are among 23 writers who will be bestowed with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2019.

The national academy of letters announced the names of the winners on Wednesday.

While Tharoor won the award for his book 'An Era of Darkness' in English, Acharya will receive the recognition for his book of Hindi poetry, 'Chheelatey Hue Apne Ko'.


"The awards were recommended by distinguished jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi which met today under the Chairmanship of Chandrashekhar Kambar, President, Sahitya Akademi," K Sreenivasarao, Secretary of the Akademi, said in a statement.

Seven poets will be given the award -- Phukan Ch. Basumatary (Bodo), Nand Kishore Acharya (Hindi), Niba A Khandekar (Konkani), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), V Madhusoodanan Nair (Malayalam), Anuradha Patil (Marathi), and Penna Madhusudan (Sanskrit).

Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L Birmangol Singh (Manipuri), Cho Dharman (Tamil) and Bandi Narayan Swami (Telugu) will receive the award for their novels.

Six authors will get the recognition in short story category -- Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Tarun Kanti Mishra (Odia), Kripal Kazak (Punjabi), Ramswaroop Kisan (Rajasthani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali), and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi).

Shashi Tharoor (English), Vijaya (Kannada) and Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) have won the award for their work on creative non-fiction, autobiography and biography respectively.

Three books of essay by Chinmoy Guha (Bengali), Om Sharma Jandriari (Dogri), and Ratilal Borisagar (Gujarati) were also named for the prestigious award.

The winners will receive an engraved copper plate and Rs 1 lakh cash prize at a special function on February 25, 2020 in Delhi.