Source : Times of India
The Sahitya Akademi on Tuesday recommended four distinguished Indian writers as its fellows: Jayant Mahapatra, Padma Sachdev, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari and Nagen Saikia.
As per the convention of the National Academy of Letters, there can only be 21 living fellows of the Sahitya Akademi and they should be “persons who made seminal and lasting contributions for the enrichment of Indian literature”, the Akademi said in a statement after its 90th General Council Meeting.
As per the Akademi, among the fellows is English and Odia writer Mahapatra, who is credited with having over 30 published books and has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award, Allan Tate Poetry Prize and the SAARC Literary Award.
Dogri and Hindi writer and Padma Shri recipient Sachdev has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Language Award and its lifetime achievement award, Kabir Samman, and the Akademi’s Translation Prize, among others.
She has 10 collections of Dogri poetry, 15 books of Hindi prose and over 12 translations to her credit.