Sahitya Akademi announces winners of Yuva Puraskar, Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021

PTI  |  31 Dec 2021: The awardees were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury comprising three members from each of the concerned languages.

Summary

• The government-run literary institution released a list of 22 winners for each of the two awards
• The recipients of both the awards will be given a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a function to be held in 2022

The Sahitya Akademi, a government-run institution that promotes literature in Indian languages through awards and fellowships, has released a list of 22 winners each of the Yuva Puraskar and the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2021.

The two awards are given to young and aspiring writers for their work in one of the 24 Indian languages recognised by the Sahitya Akademi. The literary institution announced the awards on its official website on December 30.

Megha Majumdar won the Yuva Puraskar for her debut novel, A Burning, while Himanshu Vajpai won it for his collection of short stories titled Kissa Kissa Lucknowa – Lucknow Ke Awami Kisse, a statement from the Sahitya Akademi read.

The Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2021 will be given for nine books of poetry, five novels, six short stories and one each of essays and play, the statement further said.

The winners of the Yuva Puraskar for poetry collection are Gourob Chakraborty (Bengali), Gautom Daimary (Bodo), Arun Akash Dev (Dogri), H Lakshmi Narayan Swamy (Kannada), Shraddha Garad (Konkani), Lenin Khumancha (Manipuri), Amit Mishra (Maithili), Thagulla Gopal (Telugu) and Umar Farhat (Urdu).

Drashti Soni (Gujarati), Mobin Mohan (Malayalam), Pranav Sakhadeo (Marathi) and Kuna Hansdah (Santali) are among the winners for novels.

Other winners are Abhijit Bora (Assamese), Razi Tahir Bhagat (Kashmiri), Mahesh Dahal (Nepali), Swetapadma Satapathy (Sanskrit), Rakesh Shewani (Sindhi), Veerdavinder Singh (Punjabi) and Debabrata Das (Odia).

The Yuva Puraskar for Tamil language will be declared later, while there will be no award for Rajasthani literature this year, the statement from Sahitya Akademi said.

Anita Vachharajani has been named as the recipient of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021 for the biography, Amrita Sher-Gil: Rebel with a Paintbrush. Hindi writer Devendra Mewari won the award for his play titled Natak Natak me Vigyan.

Anmol Jha (Maithili), Sudarshan Ambatey (Nepali), Digaraj Brahma (Odia), Sova Hansda (Santali), Kishin Khubchandani (Sindhi) and Kausar Siddiqui (Urdu) were named winners in the poetry category.

The other recipients of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021 are Mrinal Chandra Kalita (Assamese), Sunirmal Chakraborty (Bengali), Ratneswar Narzary (Bodo), Narsingh Dev Jamwal (Dogri), Basu Bevinagida (Kannada), Majeed Majazi (Kashmiri), Sumedha Kamat Desai (Konkani), Raghunath Paleri (Malayalam), Ningombam Jadumani Singh (Manipuri), Sanjay Wagh (Marathi), Kirti Sharma (Rajasthani), Asha Agarwal (Sanskrit), Mu. Murugesh (Tamil) and Devaraju Maharaju (Telugu).

There are no Bal Sahitya awards for literature in Gujarati and Punjabi languages this year.

The awardees were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of the Sahitya Akademi comprising three members from each of the concerned languages. The executive board of the institution declared the winners on the basis of unanimous voting by the jury.

The recipients of both the awards will be given a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a function to be held in 2022.