Sahitya Akademi Award for Kannada writer Vaidehi

Vaidehi was chosen for the honour by a jury comprising C Naganna, Shudra Srinivas and Karigowda Beechanahalli.

The jury’s decision, along with those of 23 other juries in their respective languages, was formally accepted by the executive board of the Sahitya Akademi in its meeting chaired by the literary body’s president Sunil Gangopadhyay on Wednesday.
Announcing the awards, Akademi Secretary Agrahara Krishna Murthy said eight poetry collections, six short story collections, four novels, four books on literary criticism, an essay and a play had been selected for the honour this year.
The country’s highest literary award for 24 languages will be presented on February 16 at a ceremony in the capital. “From this year onwards, the prize money for the award will go up from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh,” Murthy said.

Among the notable winners of the award in other languages are Prashasya Mitra Shastri (Sanskrit), U A Khadar (Malayalam), Yarlagadda Laxmi Prasad (Telugu), Sri Chaturvedi Badrinath (English) and Abul Kalam Qasmi (Urdu).
Murthy said the executive board of the Akademi has also decided to give a major push to the translation of Indian books into various other languages, including foreign languages.
“Now we publish 150-170 translated books every year, but this will go up to 300-400 year. For Indian books translated into foreign languages, we will be appointing a separate agency to find such publishers abroad, while the Akademi will facilitate the identification of books for the purpose as well as procurement of copyright,” he said.
The Akademi will also soon introduce separate awards for children’s literature in 24 Indian languages, he said.
Manu Baligar, Director, Department of Kannada & Culture has congratulated her.