Sahitya Akademi Awards Winners for 2015 Announced
Sahitya Akademi announces award winners for the year 2015.
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Playwright and novelist Cyrus Mistry’s English novel Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer and KR Meera’s Aarachar in Malayalam are among the works that have won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award for 2015.
The award in Bengali is to be announced at a later date.
A total of four novels, six short story books, six books of poetry, two books of essays, two of criticism, two of plays, and one of memoirs.
The award along with a cheque of Rs 1 lakh will be presented to the writers on February 16, 2016 during the annual festival of the Akademi – Festival of Letters.
The Akademi also announced Bhasha Samman to writer and scholar Shrikant Bahulkar in recognition of his contribution to classical and medieval literature (western region).
The announcement of the awards comes in the backdrop of 39 writers returning their awards in protest against the Akademi’s alleged silence on the murder of fellow writer and Sahitya Akademi board member MM Kalburgi as well as against the growing “communal atmosphere” following the Dadri lynching incident.
Saying that the award winners are considered family members by the Akademi, the institution has decided to not take the awards back.
About the remaining four authors, the Akademi said Bengali Sahitya Puraskar winner Mandakranta Sen had approached it for its account details in order to return her prize money, but the Akademi did not divulge details.