Maharashtra’s Shrikant Deshmukh And Sujata Deshmukh Win Akademi Award

New Delhi, 21:  Maharashtra’s famous poet Shrikant Deshmukh and eminent author, Ms Sujata Deshmukh have been selected for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2017.  The Awards will be presented to them for Marathi short story collection and for extensive translation work by the latter. Sahitya Akademi announced its Annual Sahitya Akademi Awards 2017 in 24 Languages on Thursday to the outstanding writers contributing substantially to the Indian literature.

            Shri Shrikant Deshmukh has been selected for his outstanding Poetry Collection, ‘Bolave Te Aamhi’ and Ms Sujata Deshmukh has been chosen for her extensive translation work, “Gauhar Jaan Mhantat Mala”, meaning ‘They call me Gauhar Jaan’. This is the translation of Vikram Sampath’s English Book, ‘My Name is Gauhar Jaan: The life and Times of a Musician’.

The Sahitya Akademi’s annual awards were announced at Ravindra Bhavan, New Delhi. The best books were announced in different material categories in 24 regional languages. The Awards would be conferred on 12^th of February, 2018 at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organized by Sahitya Akademi.   

The books for translation were selected on the basis of recommendations made by the selection committee and the prize relates to the year immediately preceding the year of Prize for Translation between 1 January 2011 and December 2015.

            The Award would be in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1,00,000/- and the Translation Award would comprise of a copper-plaque and an amount of Rs 50,000/- The award's purpose is to recognize and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends.  The Award

These Awards were recommended by distinguished Jury members representing 24 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi under the Chairmanship of Dr. Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, President of the Sahitya Akademi.