By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi 2008 Award will be conferred on Kashmiri writer Ghulam Nabi Atish for his Kashmiri language book Bazyaft and renowned Urdu and Gujarati poet Jayant Parmar for his Urdu collection of poetry Pencil aur Doosri Nazmein.
These two are among other awardees for 2008 that include writers and poets from Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and other Indian languages. The awardees include seven novelists, six poets, five short story writers and three critics.
Pencil aur Doosri Nazmein was published in 2006 and has already been selected for the first prize by the Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy for the year 2006.
For the year 2008 award only those books considered which were published for the first time between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2006.
Every year since its inception in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi has been awarding the most outstanding books of literary merit in any of the major Indian languages that the Akademi recognize. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a plaque. The 2008 award ceremony will be held on 17 February next year in Delhi.