New Delhi: Shirshendhu Mukyopadhyaya, the renowned Bengali writer and novelist, is the recipient of the 2023 Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar.
The award selection committee said Mukyopadhyaya brought “new sensibilities to his writings and enriched Indian literature through his works in the Bengali language”. He has authored about 90 books including stories, novels, travelogue, and stories for kids.
The selection committee for the national award, named in honour of the late Kannada poet Kuvempu, was headed by B.L. Shankar, president of the Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Trust. Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharya, Geetha Vijayakumar and Agrahara Krishnamurthy were members of the selection.
The award includes a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, a silver medal, and a citation. The Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Trust instituted this national annual literary award in 2013 to recognise litterateurs who had contributed to any language recognised by the constitution of India.
Last year, the award was given to Tamil writer Imayam.
The presentation ceremony for the award is scheduled for December 29, Kuvempu’s birth anniversary, according to a press release.
Mukhyopapadhyaya was born on November 2, 1935, in Mymensingh in present-day Bangladesh. His
family migrated to Kolkata during the partition of India, when he was a 12-year-old boy then. He started his career as a schoolteacher and also worked as a journalist, working for a Bengali newspaper called Desh and still with the Anand Bazar newspaper. Mukhyopapadhyaya’s first story was published in 1959.
