The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Kushtagi, K.V. Narayana get State sahitya academy award

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Saturday, Nov 24, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Kushtagi, K.V. Narayana get State sahitya academy award

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Sahitya Academy has selected five writers Vasanth Kushtagi, B.L. Venu, Mullur Nagaraj, K.V. Narayana and Hema Pattanashetty, for its annual (2007) honorary awards. It has announced book awards in 18 categories for 2006.

Academy chairperson Gita Nagabhushan told presspersons here on Thursday that the academy had selected the five writers in recognition of their contribution to Kannada literature.

There were 532 entries for the book award. Although there were many deserving works, the academy could select a work in the prescribed 18 categories.

The awards carry a cash prize of Rs. 10,000, a shawl, a memento and a citation each, she said.

The book award-winners are N.K. Hanumanthiah (poetry), Janagere Venkataramaiah (novel), Prahlad Agasanakatte (short story), Manjunatha Belakere (play), Vasudhendra (essay), N. Venkatesh (travelogue), Uma Rao (biography/autobiography), R.K. Manipal (literary criticism), S. Vidyashankar (editing), Horeyala Doreswamy (children’s literature), Harish R. Bhat and Promodar Subba Rao (science literature), S. Nataraja Boodal (humanities), Shivananda Kelaginamani (research), Tejaswini Kattimani (translation-creative), K. Venkataraju (translation – non-creative), Keshavareddy Handrala (others), M.S. Murthy (maiden work) and C.R. Yravinatelimatha (translation from Kannada to English).

Of the honorary award winners, septuagenarian Prof. Vasantha Kushtagi hails from Kushtagi in Koppal district. A college teacher, some of his works have been prescribed as textbooks by Gulbarga University. He is the recipient of many awards, including Rajyotsava, Gorur and Muddanna literary award.

The 61-year-old Mr. Venu, who hails from Chitradurga district, has authored over 60 books. He has written stories and dialogues for several films and bagged the State award for his dialogues for the cinema Aparanji.

Hailing from Mullur in Nanjangud taluk, Mr. Nagaraj was influenced by B.R. Ambedkar’s ideology and took part in various Dalit and progressive movement.

K.V. Narayan, who comes from a backward community in Piriyapattana in Mysore district, is a prominent literary critic. He has won GSS Award for literary criticism this year. His work, “Buru, Kanda, Chiguru mattu Bhasheya sutta mutta,” has won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award.

The Dharwad born 55-year-old Ms. Pattanashetty has written 11 books in the genre of poetry, drama, criticism and translation.

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