Sahitya Akademi 2024: 'Yuva Puraskar', 'Bal Sahitya Puraskar' winners' list released

New Delhi: The Sahitya Akademi on Saturday announced the names of 23 writers, including English writer K Vaishali and Hindi author Gaurav Pandey, who will receive the prestigious Yuva Puraskar across as many languages.

The National Akademi of Letters also announced the names of 24 winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2024.

The winner of the Yuva Puraskar in Sanskrit will be announced at a later date, the Akademi said in a statement.

"The Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi in its meeting held today under the Chairmanship of its President Sri Madhav Kaushik approved selection of 23 writers who were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the Jury comprising three members each in the concerned language in accordance with the rules and procedure laid down for the purpose," the literary body said in a statement.

While K Vaishali will be honoured for her memoir 'Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India', Gaurav Pandey won the prestigious award for his poetry collection 'Smritiyon Ke Beech Ghiri Hai Prithvi'.

The Yuva Puraskar has been awarded for 10 poetry books, seven collections of short stories, two collections of articles and one of essays, one novel, one book of ghazals and one memoir.

The other winners of the Yuva Puraskar are Nayanjyoti Sarma (Assamese), Sutapa Chakraborty (Bengali), Self Made Rani Baro (Bodo) and Heena Choudhary (Dogri).

Rinku Rathod (Gujarati), Shruti B R (Kannada), Mohd Ashraf Ziya (Kashmiri), Adwait Salgaonkar (Konkani), Rinki Jha Rishika (Maithili), and Shyamkrishnan R (Malayalam) are also among the winners.

Waikhom Chingkheinganba (Manipuri), Devidas Saudagar (Marathi), Suraj Chapagain (Nepali), Sanjay Kumar Panda (Odia), Randhir (Punjabi), Sonali Sutar (Rajasthani) have also been picked for the Yuva Puruskar.

The other winners are Anjan Karmakar (Santali), Geeta Pradeep Rupani (Sindhi), Lokesh Raghuraman (Tamil), Ramesh Karthik Nayak (Telugu) and Javed Amber Misbahi (Urdu).

Yuva Puraskar awardees will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at an awards ceremony later.

For the Bal Sahitya Puraskar, the Akademi has picked English writer Nandini Sengupta for her historical fiction "The Blue Horse and Other Amazing Animal Stories from Indian History" and Devender Kumar's collection of children's stories "51 Baal Kahaniyan".

The Bal Sahitya Puraskar has been awarded for seven novels, six books of poetry, four stories, five short stories, one play, and one historical fiction.

The winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar are Ranju Hazarika (Assamese), Dipanwita Roy (Bengali), Birgin Jekova Machahary (Bodo), Bishan Singh 'Dardi' (Dogri), Gira Pinakin Bhatt (Gujarati) and Krishnamurthy Biligere (Kannada).

Muzaffar Hussain Dilbar (Kashmiri), Harsha Sadguru Shetye (Konkani), Narayangee (Maithili), Unni Ammayambalam (Malayalam), Kshetrimayun Subadani (Manipuri), Bharat Sasane (Marathi), Basanta Thapa (Nepali) and Manas Ranjan Samal (Odia) are also among the winners.

The remaining winners are Kuldeep Singh Deep (Punjabi), Prahlad Singh 'Jhorda' (Rajasthani), Harshdev Madhav (Sanskrit), Dugal Tudu (Santali), Lal Hotchandani 'Lachaar' (Sindhi), Yuva Vasuki (Tamil), P Chandrashekhar Azad (Telugu) and Shamsul Islam Farooqi (Urdu).

The winners of the Bal Sahitya Puraskar will receive a casket containing an engraved copper plaque and a cheque of Rs 50,000 at a special function to be held at a later date.