Jerry Pinto, Nasira Sharma among Sahitya Akademi winners

Jerry Pinto, Nasira Sharma and Vannadhasan are among 24 writers named for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi awards this year.
Eight books of poetry, seven of short stories, five novels, two books of criticism, one book each of essays and play have won the award this year, according to Srinivas Rao, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi.
The awards will be presented during a ceremony on February 22 next year.
Rao said Sharma's name has been selected for her Hindi novel "Paarijat", while Pinto is in the list of winners for his English novel "Em and the Big Hoom", Gita Upadhyay for her novel "Janmabhumi Mero Swadesh" in Nepali, Kannada novelist Boluwaru Mohammad Kunhi for "Swatantryada Ota" and Edwin JF D'souza for Konkani novel "Kale Bhangar".

The poets who feature in the list of winners are Jnan Pujari (Assamese), Anju (Bodo), Kamal Vora (Gujarati), Prabha Varma (Malayalam), Sitanath Acharya (Sanskrit), Gobinda Chandra Majhi (Santali), Nand Javeri (Sindhi) and Papini Svasankar (Telugu).
Seven writers awarded for their short stories are Chhatrapal in Dongri language, Shyam Darihare (Maithili), Moirangthem Rajen (Manipuri), Asaram Lomate (Marathi), Paramamita Satpathy (Odia), Bulaki Sharma (Rajasthani) and Vannadhasan (Tamil).

Aziz Hajini (Kashmiri) and Nizam Siddiqui (Urdu) have been recognised for their books criticism; Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri (Bengali) for his essays and Swarajbir (Punjabi) for his play are also among the winners.
The awards were given for books published during January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2014.

The prize will include a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.