Noted Kannada poet and writer Jayant Kaikini will be awarded the first Kusumagraj National Literary award.Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Nashik and Kusumagraj Prathisthan have jointly announced to honour Kaikini with the award, a release said here today.
The award carries Rs one lakh and citation which will be bestowed upon Kaikini at a ceremony scheduled to take place on March 13.
Kaikini is regarded as one of the most significant of the younger writers in Kannada today. He is a writer of short stories, film scripts and poetry, and is based in Bangalore.Kaikini received the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award for his first poetry collection at the age of nineteen in 1974. He received the same award again in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections.