Sahitya Akademi Awards: Assamese Author Pranavjyoti Deka Bags Prestigious Gong

The Sahitya Akademi on Wednesday announced the annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 24 languages with Assamese short story writer Pranavjyoti Deka among others to bag the prestigious recognition.

The awards were given across five categories – Poetry, Novel, Short Stories, Essays, and Literary Study with nine books of poetry, six of novel, five of short stories, three of essays and one of literary study winning the Sahitya Akademi Awards for 2023.

The awards were recommended by a panel of distinguished jury members and were approved by the executive board of the Sahitya Akedemi which met on Wednesday under the Chairmanship of Madhav Kaushik, the president of the nation’s apex literary body.

While, Pranavjyoti Deka won the Sahitya Akademi Award under the short stories category for his book ‘Dr. Pranavjyoti Dekar Srestha Galpa’, Bodo author Nandeswar Daimari was also recognized with the gong for his work titled ‘Jiu-Safarni Dakhwn.

In addition, Nepali writer Judhabir Rana won the Sahitya Akademi Award under the category of essays for his work ‘Nepali Loksahitya Ra Loksanskritiko Parichaya’ and Bengali writer Swapnamay Chakrabarti won the award for his novel ‘Jaler Upar Pani’.

A press release from the Sahitya Akademi mentioned, “The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a Jury of three members in the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose. According to the procedure, the Executive Board declared the Awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the Jurors or selection made on the basis of majority vote. The Awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award (i.e. between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2021).”

“The Award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- towards cash content each will be presented to the awardees at the award presentation function which will be held on 12 March 2024 at Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi- 110 001,” it further added.

The full list of Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023 winners:

Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023 jury members:

Also Read: Assam: Five Noted Writers Bag Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023