The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 24 major Indian languages such as Tamil, English, Bengali, Punjabi and the 22 listed languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution recognised by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of ₹ 1,00,000.The award’s purpose is to recognise and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees runs for the preceding twelve months. The plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray. Prior to this, the plaque occasionally was made of marble, but this practice was discontinued because of the excessive weight. During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the plaque was substituted with national savings bonds.
Who won Sahitya award in 2021 ?
Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021: Goreti Venkanna, George Onakkoor, Ambai among winners. While Goreti Venkanna won the award for his poetry collection ‘Vallanki Taalam’, Ambai was awarded for her short story collection ‘Sivappu Kazhutthudan Oru Pachai Paravai
Who won Sahitya award in 2021 ?
The Sahitya Akademy Award 2021 was given in 20 Indian languages. Namita Gokhale received it in English for her novel titled ‘Things to Leave Behind’.
Who was the first woman Sahitya Academy award winner?
At number 100 features another poet — Amrita Pritam — a voice to reckon with in Punjabi literature. In 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for her magnum opus, a long poem, Sunehade (Messages).
List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English
The Sahitya Akademi Award is the second-highest literary honor in India. The Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, aims at “promoting Indian literature throughout the world”. The Akademi annually confers on writers of “the most outstanding books of literary merit”. The awards are given for works published in any of the 24 languages recognised by the akademi. Instituted in 1954, the award recognizes and promotes excellence in writing and acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees runs for the preceding twelve months. As of 2015, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of ₹1 lakh (US$1,300).
| Year | Book | Writer | Category of Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | The Guide | R. K. Narayan | Novel |
| 1964 | The Serpent and the Rope | Raja Rao | Novel |
| 1965 | The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin | Verrier Elwin | Autobiography |
| 1967 | Shadow From Ladakh | Bhabani Bhattacharya | Novel |
| 1969 | An Artist in Life | Niharranjan Ray | Biography |
| 1971 | Morning Face | Mulk Raj Anand | Novel |
| 1975 | Scholar Extraordinary | Nirad C. Chaudhuri | Biography |
| 1976 | Jawaharlal Nehru | Sarvepalli Gopal | Biography |
| 1977 | Azadi | Chaman Nahal | Novel |
| 1978 | Fire on the Mountain | Anita Desai | Novel |
| 1979 | Inside the Haveli | Rama Mehta | Novel |
| 1980 | On the Mother | K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar | Biography |
| 1981 | Relationship | Jayanta Mahapatra | Poetry |
| 1982 | The Last Labyrinth | Arun Joshi | Novel |
| 1983 | Latter-Day Psalms | Nissim Ezekiel | Poetry |
| 1984 | The Keeper of the Dead | Keki N. Daruwalla | Poetry |
| 1985 | Collected Poems | Kamala Das | Poetry |
| 1986 | Rich Like Us | Nayantara Sahgal | Novel |
| 1987 | Trapfalls In the Sky | Shiv K. Kumar | Poetry |
| 1988 | The Golden Gate | Vikram Seth | Novel |
| 1989 | The Shadow Lines | Amitav Ghosh | Novel |
| 1990 | That Long Silence | Shashi Deshpande | Novel |
| 1991 | The Trotter-Nama | I. Allan Sealy | Novel |
| 1992 | Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra | Ruskin Bond | Novel |
| 1993 | After Amnesia | G. N. Devy | Essays |
| 1994 | Serendip | Dom Moraes | Poetry |
| 1996 | Memories of Rain | Sunetra Gupta | Novel |
| 1998 | Final Solutions and Other Plays | Mahesh Dattani | Drama |
| 1999 | The Collected Poems | A. K. Ramanujan | Poetry |
| 2000 | Cuckold | Kiran Nagarkar | Novel |
| 2001 | Rajaji: A Life | Rajmohan Gandhi | Biography |
| 2002 | A New World | Amit Chaudhuri | Novel |
| 2003 | The Perishable Empire | Meenakshi Mukherjee | Essays |
| 2004 | The Mammaries of the Welfare State | Upamanyu Chatterjee | Novel |
| 2005 | The Algebra of Infinite Justice | Arundhati Roy | Essays |
| 2006 | The Sari Shop | Rupa Bajwa | Novel |
| 2007 | Disorderly Women | Malathi Rao | Novel |
| 2009 | Mahabharata: An Inquiry into the Human Condition | Chaturvedi Badrinath | Criticism |
| 2010 | The Book of Rachel | Esther David | Novel |
| 2011 | India after Gandhi | Ramachandra Guha | Historical Narrative |
| 2012 | These Errors are Correct | Jeet Thayil | Poetry |
| 2013 | Laburnum For My Head | Temsula Ao | Short stories |
| 2014 | Trying to Say Goodbye | Adil Jussawalla | Poetry |
| 2015 | Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer | Cyrus Mistry | Novel |
| 2016 | Em and the Big Hoom | Jerry Pinto | Novel |
| 2017 | The Black Hill | Mamang Dai | Novel |
| 2018 | The Blind Lady’s Descendants | Anees Salim | Novel |
| 2019 | An Era of Darkness | Shashi Tharoor | Novel (non-fiction) |
| 2020 | When God is a Traveller | Arundhathi Subramaniam | Poetry |
| 2021 | Things to Leave Behind | Namita Gokhale | Novel |