Sahitya Akademi announces four eminent writers as fellows

The Sahitya Akademi on Tuesday recommended four distinguished Indian writers as its fellows: Jayant Mahapatra, Padma Sachdev, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari and Nagen Saikia. As per the convention of the National Academy of Letters, there can only be 21 living fellows of the Sahitya Akademi and they should be "persons who made seminal and lasting contributions for the enrichment of Indian literature", the Akademi said in a statement after its 90th General Council Meeting.

As per the Akademi, among the fellows is English and Odia writer Mahapatra, who is credited with having over 30 published books and has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award, Allan Tate Poetry Prize and the SAARC Literary Award. Dogri and Hindi writer and Padma Shri recipient Sachdev has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Language Award and its lifetime achievement award, Kabir Samman, and the Akademi's Translation Prize, among others.

She has 10 collections of Dogri poetry, 15 books of Hindi prose and over 12 translations to her credit. Former Akademi president and Hindi writer Tiwari has also published 50 works, which include criticism, poetry collections, travelogues, biography, interviews, compilation and edited books.

He is the recipient of many awards and honours including the Hindi Gaurav Samman, Vyas Samman, Sahitya Bhushan Samman, Pushkin Samman and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award, among others, the Akademi said. The fourth fellow, former Rajya Sabha member (1986-1992) and Assamese writer Saikia is the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Assam Valley Literary Award, Hariprasad Rai Award and Sabda Sahitya Award, among many others.

The writer has more than 125 published books to his credit, including collections of short stories, criticism, travelogues, besides edited, co-edited and translated books. The highest honour conferred by the Akademi on a writer is by electing her/him as its fellow. This honour is reserved for `the immortals of literature', the Akademi's website says.