This year, the Sahitya Akademi Awards recognised nine poetry books, six novels, five short story collections, three essays, and one literary study for their outstanding contributions.
The awards, spanning 24 languages, were recommended by a distinguished jury and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi. The selection criteria included books first published between January 2017 and December 31, 2021.
Among the notable awardees, Rajasekaran received recognition for his novel Neervazhi Paduvum, Sastry for his Telugu short story collection Rameshwaram Kaakulu Marikonni Kathalu, and Ramakrishnan for his literary study Malayala Novelinte Deshakalangal.
Other awardees include scholar Lakshmisha Tolpadi for his Kannada essay collection Mahabharatha Anusandhanada Bharathayatre, Bengali author Swapnamay Chakrabarti for his novel Jaler Upar Pani, Neelum Saran Gour for the English novel Requim in Raga Janaki, and Sanjeev in the Hindi category for his novel Mujhe Pahachaano.
The awards for poetry collections will be given to Vijay Verma (Dogri), Vinod Joshi (Gujarati), Manshoor Banihali (Kashmiri), Ashutosh Parida (Odia), Swarnjit Savi (Punjabi), Gaje Singh Rajpurohit (Rajasthani), Vinod Asudani (Sindhi), and Arun Ranjan Mishra (Sanskrit).
The Sahitya Akademi Award, symbolised by a casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl, and a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000, will be conferred at the award presentation ceremony on March 12, 2024.
