GunturRenowned writer Penugonda Lakshminarayan has been awarded the prestigious Central Sahitya Akademi Award. Her work ‘Deepika Abhyudaya Vyas Samputi’ has been selected for the award.
Lakshminarayan, a resident of Guntur, is also a lawyer. He has been actively involved in the Progressive Writers Association since 1972, holding various district, state and national level positions. In 2023, he created history by becoming the first Telugu writer to be elected as the national president of the association. His literary journey began in 1972 with the poem ‘Samidhi’.
On Wednesday, the Sahitya Akademi announced the winners of the Central Sahitya Akademi Awards for 21 Indian languages. Among the selected works are eight collections of poetry, three novels, two collections of short stories, three collections of essays and three books of literary criticism. One book each of drama and research has also been selected for this prestigious award. Awards for Bengali, Dogri and Urdu languages will be announced at a later stage.
A jury consisting of eminent personalities of various Indian languages carefully evaluated several books and recommended the winners for this prestigious award. The names of the selected books were announced at the meeting held on Wednesday of the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi chaired by Madhav Kaushik. The prize, which includes a cash prize of one lakh and a shawl, will be presented to the winners in Delhi on March 8 next year.
Professor Rachapalem Chandrasekhar Reddy represented the Telugu language in the jury.