Kannada writer's autobiography wins Akademi Award

Kudi Esaru, an autobiography of eminent writer and journalist Vijaya, has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the year under the Kannada language category.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also won the prestigious award for his non-fiction in English, ‘An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India’.

The Akademi on Wednesday announced the names of the winners of this year’s Sahitya Akademi Awards. The award is conferred every year to acknowledge outstanding literary works in 23 languages of the country.

A total of seven books of poetry, four of the novel, six of short stories, three of essays and one each of non-fiction, autobiography, and biography won the prestigious award for this year.

The award carries an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl, and Rs 1 lakh

“The awards will be presented to the authors of the books at a special function to be held on February 25, 2020, at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters,” the Akademi said in a press communique.

Joysree Goswami Mahanta won the award for her novel ‘Chanakya’ in Assamese language, L Birmangol Singh Ei for ‘Amadi Adungeigi Eethat’ (Manipuri), Cho. Dharman for ‘Sool’ (Tamil) and Bandi Narayana Swamy for Septabhoomi (Telugu).

Under the short stories genre, Abdul Ahad Hajini won the award for his book in Kashmiri language, Tarun Kanti Mishra in Odia, Kirpal Kazak in Punjabi, Ramsawroop Kisan in Rajasthani, Kali Charan Hembram in Santhali and Ishwar Moorjani for his book in Sindhi language.

Shafey Kidwai, a faculty member of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book in Urdu, ‘Sawaneh-E-Sir Syed: Ek Bazdeed,’ a biography of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, an Islamic reformer and educationist, who had laid the foundation of the AMU.