On December 18, 2019 the Sahitya Akademi announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages for the year 2019. 7 books of poetry, 4 novel, 6 short stories, 3 essays and one in each of non-fiction, autobiography and biography won the awards.
Sahitya Akademi awards 2019:
- Award Recommendation: The awards were recommended by the jury members representing 23 Indian languages under the Chairmanship of Dr. Chandrashekhar Kambar, President of SahityaAkademi.
- Award Announcement: Usually Sahitya Akademi Award for 24 languages will be awarded. This time 23 languages were announced. Nepali (24th language) will be announced later.
- Awarding Ceremony: The authors will be presented with the awards at a special function to be held on 25 February 2020 in New Delhi during the Festival of Letters organized by Sahitya Akademi.
- The Awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award (i.e. between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2017).
- Award Features: The Award is given in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- towards cash content.
Important winners:
- Shashi Tharoor wins for english book: Indian politician, writer and Congress party member Shashi Tharoor won the Sahitya Akademi Award. The Member of Parliament(MP) of Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, tharoor won the award for his book “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India”. The book was 1st published in 2016.
- Dharman wins for tamil Novel sool: Cho. Dharman from Thoothukudi, TamilNadu has won the Sahitya Akademi award for his tamil Novel Sool. The novel was published by “Adayalam publications”. It is also to be noted that his previous novel “Koogai” has been translated by the Oxford University, England.
- Nand Kishore wins for Hindi poetry: Renowned poet Nandkishore Acharya of Hindi has been announced the Sahitya Akademi award for his collection of poems ‘Peelte Apne Ko’.
Jury Members:
The Jury members of each language is given in http://164.100.117.97/WriteReadData/userfiles/2.%20annexure%20A%20and%20B%20(English).pdf.
Awards:
| Sl. No | Title and genre | Author | Language |
| 1 | Chanakya (Novel) | Joysree Goswami Mahanta | Assamese |
| 2 | Ghumer Darja Thele (Essays) | Chinmoy Guha | Bengali |
| 3 | Akhai Athumniphrai (Poetry) | Phukan Ch. Basumatary | Bodo |
| 4 | Bandralta Darpan (Essays) | Om Sharma Jandriar | Dogri |
| 5 | An Era of Darkness (Non-Fiction) | Shashi Tharoor | English |
| 6 | Mojma Revu Re (Essays) | Ratilal Borisagar | Gujarati |
| 7 | Chheelate Hue Apne Ko (Poetry) | Nand Kishore Acharya | Hindi |
| 8 | Kudi Esaru (Autobiography) | Vijaya | Kannada |
| 9 | Akh Yaad Akh Qayamat (Short Stories) | Abdul Ahad Hajini | Kashmiri |
| 10 | The Words (Poetry) | Nilba A. Khandekar | Konkani |
| 11 | Jingik Oriaon Karait (Poetry) | Kumar Manish Arvind | Maithili |
| 12 | Achan Piranna Veedu (Poetry) | V. Madhusoodanan Nair | Malayalam |
| 13 | Ei Amadi Adungeigi Eethat (Novel) | L. Birmangol Singh (Beryl Thanga) | Manipuri |
| 14 | Kadachit Ajoonahi (Poetry) | Anuradha Patil | Marathi |
| 15 | Bhaswati (Short Stories) | Tarun Kanti Mishra | Odia |
| 16 | Antheen (Short Stories) | Kirpal Kazak | Punjabi |
| 17 | Bareek Baat (Short Stories) | Ramsawroop Kisan | Rajasthani |
| 18 | Prajnachakshusham (Poetry) | Penna Madhusudan | Sanskrit |
| 19 | Sisirjali (Short Stories) | Kali Charan Hembram | Santali |
| 20 | Jeejal (Short Stories) | Ishwar Moorjani | Sindhi |
| 21 | Sool (Novel) | Cho. Dharman | Tamil |
| 22 | Septabhoomi (Novel) | Bandi Narayana Swamy | Telugu |
| 23 | Sawaneh-E-Sir Syed: Ek Bazdeed (Biography) | Shafey Kidwai | Urdu |
About Sahitya Akademi Awards:
Fact1- The Sahitya Academy Award is a literary award in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit in the 24 mentioned languages.
Fact2- The copper plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray.
Established- 1954.
