The State government has decided to confer the prestigious Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the top literary award of the Government of Kerala, on poet-critic K. Satchidanandan.
A pioneer of modernism in Malayalam poetry, a bilingual literary critic, former Editor of Indian Literature, the official journal of the Sahitya Akademi, Mr. Satchidanandan’s works have been translated into several languages. The former secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, he is a public intellectual who has upheld secular and anti-fascist position in his life and work.
The prolific writer who has been making trail blazing interventions in literature and society, Mr. Satchidanandan has over 30 collections of poetry, over 25 collections of essays and another 20 odd collections of translations of poetry from various Indian and foreign languages to his credit.
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Announcing the award at a news conference here on Wednesday, Culture Minister A.K. Balan said Mr. Satchidanandan was chosen for the award by a jury chaired by Kerala Sahithya Academi chairman and writer Vaisakhan.
The award carries a purse of ₹ 5 lakh.