The Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar, the national award instituted in memory of of the famous poet Kuvempu, has been awarded to Marathi writer Prof Shyam Manohar , for the year 2015.
The prestigious award carries a cash award of five lakh rupees.
The announcement was made by Professor Hampa Nagarajiah, the President of the Kuvempu Pratishtana, at the Karnataka Sangha here this morning.
Shyam Manohar is the author of eight short story works, eight plays and many critical essays. Many of Shyam Manohars works have been prescribed as texts in almost all Universities of Maharashtra. His short stories and parts of novels have been translated in many Indian languages such as Gujarati, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, Sindhi, Kannada and English. His book on Devi Ahilyabai has been the subject of a film.
Born in 1941, Shyam Manohar is a retired professor from S. P. College, Pune
Shyam Manohar was selected by a jury consisting of Prof H. S. Shivaprakash, Malayalam writer Dr. K. Satchidanandan and Dr Purushotham Bilimale, Writers from Western India, namely authors in Konkani, Marathi and Gujarati, were considered for the award.
More From This Section
At the media conference Dr Bilimale explained the unique character of the works of Shyam Manohar. His fiction works compasses poverty, richness, globalization, science, technology, humour and nature.
Previous award winners were Dr K. Satchinandan from southern India and Hindi writer Namwar Singh from north India.
The bestowal of the award will take place at Kuppali, Karnataka on 29th December this year on the occasion of the Birthday of Kuvempu.