The executive board of the Sahitya Akademi which met at New Delhi on Monday approved the selection of 24 books for the said prize which relates to translations first published between January 2017 and December 2021.
As many as 24 books are selected for the award, comprising Rs 50,000 and a citation which will be presented to the translators of these books at a special function to be held sometime later this year, stated Akademi press release.
The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the selection committee, the official release added.
The award for Odia went to noted litterateur Bangali Nanda for his translation ‘Nelluri Keshavaswamyanka Shrestha Galpa’ of the Telugu short stories collection ‘Nelluri Keshavaswamy Uthama Kathalu’ by Nelluri Keshavaswamy. The National Book Trust (NBT) published the book in 2019.
Kannaiyan Dakshinamoorthy won the Sahitya Akademi award for the best translation in Tamil for translating Mamang Dai’s English novel The Black Hill. The Tamil translation is titled Karungundram.
Two Malayalis – Dr P K Radhamani and K K Gangadharan– are among the winners.
Dr P K Radhamani was selected under the Malayalam category for translating the autobiography of Amrita Pritam ‘Aksharon Ke Saye’ from Hindi to Malayalam. The autobiography translated as ‘Aksharangalude Nizhalil’ was published by Mathrubhumi Books. A Guruvaryur resident, Radhamani is a former Hindi professor at the Malabar Christian College. K K Gangadharan, a Kasaragod resident, was chosen for the award under the Kannada category for translating stories from Malayalam to Kannada. ‘Malayalam Kathegalu’ is the book that brought him this recognition. The book is a compilation of stories of noted Malayalam writers