'Festival of Letters' begins with honouring 24 writers with Sahitya Akademi Award

Twenty-four writers across as many Indian languages were honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2022 at the beginning of the 39th Festival of Letters here on Saturday.

Hindi author Badri Narayan, English writer Anuradha Roy were among those who received the prestigious literary award at a ceremony held at Kamani Auditorium on the inaugural day of the literary festival, organised by Sahitya Akademi.

While Narayan received the honour for his collection of poems titled Tumadi Ke Shabd, Roy was awarded for her novel All the Lives We Never Lived in English.

The awards included seven poetry collections, seven novels, two story collections, two literary criticisms, three plays and one autobiography.

The other awardees were Manoj Kumar Goswami (Assamese), Tapan Bandyopadhyay (Bengali), Rashmi Choudhury (Bodo), Veena Gupta (Dogri), Gulammohammed Sheikh (Gujarati), Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy (Kannada), Farooq Fayaz (Kashmiri), Maya Anil Kharangate (Konkani), Ajit Azad (Maithili), and M Thomas Mathew (Malayalam).

Manipuri author Koijam Shantibala Devi, KB Nepali (Nepali), Pravin Dashrath Bandekar (Marathi), Gayatribala Panda (Odia), Sukhjit (Punjabi), Janardan Prasad Pandey ‘Mani’ (Sanskrit), Kamal Ranga (Rajasthani), Jagannath Soren (Santali), Kanhaiyalal Lekhwani (Sindhi), M Rajendran (Tamil), Madhuranthakam Narendra (Telugu), and Anis Ashfaq (Urdu) also received the prestigious award.

The awardees received Rs 1 lakh in cash, an engraved copper plaque and a shawl.

Congratulating the writers, English writer and chief guest at the event Upamanyu Chatterjee said that it was the duty of every writer to not let the pluralism of the Sahitya Akademi be diminished.

"We are all participating today in what must be really the most extraordinary felicitation ceremony in the universe of literature anywhere in the world. Patiently, diligently and as impartially as can be in the circumstances has the Akademi for the last seven decades been honouring the best books published in the preceding year, not in one language not in four but 24 languages.

"That by any standard is an extraordinary achievement. Nowhere else in the world I think I'm quite sure does anything remotely comparable happen. And I think that it is the duty of each one of us who are writers, who claim to be writers, that this prized treasure, this pluralism which is so rare, is not sullied or tarnished or diminished in any way,” the author of English, August said at the ceremony.

Centred around 'Indian Literature and Unity of Cultures', the festival was inaugurated by Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal, Sahitya Akademi president Madhav Kaushik and secretary K Sreenivasarao with the opening of an exhibition showcasing glimpses of the Akademi's activities in 2022.

The six-day festival is the “biggest yet” with the participation of more than 400 writers and scholars representing around 60 languages across 40 literary programmes, including writers’ meets, literary readings, symposia, and cultural programmes.

Apart from the programmes like Purvottari, Tribal Writers' Meet, Yuva Sahiti, Spin-a-Tale, LGBTQ Writers' Meet and a national seminar, the latest edition of the festival also feature an All India Poets' Meet focusing on the G20 theme - "One Earth One Family One Future" - besides panel discussion on education and creativity, diplomacy and literature, and literature and women empowerment.

The festival will conclude on March 16.