By Sukant Deepak

January 19, 2023 (IANSlife) The Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) Book Awards 2022 have been announced. Well-known writers including Sanjeev Sanyal, Hindol Sengupta, Ranjit Hoskote, Akshaya Mukul, Pravin Kumar, and several others will receive awards for their recent books.

The awards will be in various categories including Non-fiction, Fiction Poetry Books, Books in the Hindi language, Translation, Bhasa First Book, Business Book, Environmental Book, Biography/Autobiography, Children's Book, Sports Book, Lifestyle and Emerging Trend Books among others. The awardees were selected from books submitted by publishers all across these categories. The winner will be felicitated and awarded during the annual Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) which is scheduled to be held on February 24-26, 2023 in  Bhubaneswar.

Acclaimed writers and their books will be showcased during the event; Sanjeev Sanyal’s book- ‘Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won its Freedom’, Kailash Satyarthi’s ‘Tum Pehle Kyon Nahi Aaye’, Hindol Sengupta’s ‘Sing, Dance and Pray: The Inspirational Story of Srila Prabhupada Founder-Acharya of ISKCON’ , Ranjit Hoskote’s ‘Hunchprose’, Pravin Kumar’s ‘Amar Desva’ , Akshaya Mukul’s ‘Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya’ and others have been selected this year for KLF Book Awards.

“We received hundreds of fantastic books and the jury members had a difficult time in choosing the best in each category. The path-breaking and thought-provoking contributions have been identified as the best representatives in their respective categories. The objective of KLF Book Awards has been to contribute to debates and discourses in the national and global literary public sphere and encourage more reflective, thoughtful, and inspiring contributions,” said Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Founder, and Director of Kalinga Literary Festival.

-Sanjeev Sanyal’s ‘Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won its Freedom’and Akshaya Mukul’s ‘Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya’ got the Non-fiction Book Award in English. For Hindi, Kailash Satyarthi’s ‘Tum Pehle Kyon Nahi Aaye’ and Akhilesh’s ‘AKS’ received the award.

The KLF Fiction Book awards in English and Hindi were given to Navtej Sarna’s ‘Crimson Spring’ and Pravin Kumar’s ‘Amar Desva’ respectively. In the poetry category, Ranjit Hoskote’s - Hunchprose got the award for English while Pankaj Chaturvedi’s ‘Aakash Mein Ardhachandra’ received it for Hindi. 

Piyush Pandey’s ‘Open House’ received the Business Book Award while KLF First Book Awards were won by Farah Bashir’s ‘Rumours of Spring’, Sumit Sharma Sameer’s ’Wake Up Ali…Wake Up Now', Pradeep Baishakh Faces of Inequality: Stories of the poor and underprivileged from India’s grassroots.

The Women/Dalit/Tribal/Minorities Literature Award was won by ‘Machhliyan Gayengi Ek Din Pandumgeet’ by Poonam Vasam and the Children Book Award was won by Zarin Virji for ‘Gopal’s Gully’ 

The Lifestyle/Biography/Environment & Emerging Trend Book Award was won by Bimal Prasad & Sujata Prasad’s, ‘The Dream of Revolution: A Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan’, Hindol Sengupta’s ‘Sing, Dance and Pray: The Inspirational Story of Srila Prabhupada Founder-Acharya of ISKCON’, ‘Satyajit Ray Miscellany: On Life, Cinema, People & Much More’, ‘The Book of Bihari Literature’, edited by Abhay K and Rama Shanker Singh’s ‘Nadi Putra’.

The KLF Book in Translation Award 2022 went to ‘JADUNAMA: Javed Akhtar's Journey’ (English) by Arvind Mandloi, and translated by Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil, and ‘The Bride: The Maithili Classic Kanyadan’ by Harimohan Jha, translated by Lalit Kumar. 

KLF Bhasha Book awards recipients included (Nepali): Ranjana Niraula- Anubhuti Ko Awataran – Kathmandu- Nepal; ‘Maithili: Mahendra Malangia’s -‘Dak, Ghagh aa Bhaddari’ ; Kannada:  Sreenivasa Murthy’s   Shilpakala Devaaalayakke Daari;  Odia: KamlaKant Mohapatra’s ‘Bou Hajila O Milia’; and in Malayalam - KR Meera’s ‘Qabar’.

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