Adil Jussawalla wins Sahitya Akademi Award 2014

New Delhi: Poet and critic Adil Jussawall's "Trying to Say Goodbye" is among eight books of poetry conferred the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2014, it was announced here Friday.

Apart from this, five novels, three books of essays, three of short stories, one of literary criticism and an autobiography have also won the award that recognises premier works in 22 Indian languages.

Bengali poet Utpal Kumar Basu's "Piya Mana Bhabe", Bodo poet Urkhao Gwra Brahma's "Udangnifrai Gidingfinnanei", Shad Ramzan's "Kore Kakud Pushrith Gome" (Kashmiri), Gopalkrushna Rath's "Bipula Diganta" (Odia), Jaswinder's "Agarbatti" for Punjabi, Gope Kamal's "Sija Agyaan Buku" in Sindhi and Munawwar Rana's "Shahdaba" (Urdu) have also won the award.

Well-known novelists Shailender Singh (Dogri), Ramesh Chandra Shah (Hindi), Subhash Chandran, (Malayalam), Asha Mishra (Maithili) and Poomani (Tamil) have been awarded for their literary writings.

A distinguished jury representing 22 Indian languages had recommended these books and they were approved by the executive board of the Sahitya Akademi which met Friday with the institution's president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari in the chair.

Winners of Manipuri and Sanskrit language awards will be declared later.

Arupa Patangia Kalita (Assamese), Nanda Hankhim (Nepali) and Rampal Singh Rajpurohit (Rajasthani) have got the award for their short stories, Jayant Vishnu Naralikar (Marathi) for his autobiography, Jamadar Kisku (Santali) for his play and Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy (Telugu) for his literary criticism.

Kannada poet, writer and professor G.H. Nayak, publisher, writer and critic Madhavi Sardesai (Konkani) and late photographer Ashvin Mehta (Gujarati) have got the award for their books of essays.

The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000 will be presented to the authors at a special during the Festival of Letters - the annual function of the Akademi - March 9, 2015.