Noted Poet Vinita Agarwal To Be Conferred 2nd Jayanta Mahapatra National Award For Literature

Bhubaneswar: Eminent poet Vinita Agrawal has been chosen for the second Jayanta Mahapatra National Award for Literature.

The award, instituted by Udaygiri Foundation, will be conferred on the occasion of third Toshali Literature Festival 2025. The award will carry a citation and cash award of Rs 50,000, the foundation said in a press release.

Vinita will receive the award during the inaugural ceremony of the 3rd Toshali Literature Festival on first day of February 2025 scheduled to be held at the Ranch Resort on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, it said.

Vinita is the author of six books of poetry – Words Not Spoken, The Longest Pleasure, Silk of Hunger, Two Full Moons, Twilight Language, and Eartha.

She has edited two anthologies on climate change. They are, Open Your Eyes and Count Every Breath. She has also edited the Centennial celebration memoir on Nissim Ezekiel, Nissim Ezekiel, Poet & Father.

Her book Twilight Language won the Proverse Prize in Hong Kong 2021. She was awarded the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2018 and the Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, USA, 2015 and a special mention in the Hawkers Prize 2019. Her work was shortlisted for the inaugural Dipankar Khiwani Memorial Prize 2021.

She co-edits the Yearbook series of Indian Poetry in English and was a former Poetry Editor with Usawa Literary Review. Her work has been widely published and anthologised. She is on the Advisory Board of the Tagore Literary Prize. She was one of the twenty poets featured in a documentary on Asian poets titled Deepest Uprising, made in Taiwan.

She is a birder and a photographer.

Instituted by the Udaygiri Foundation Trust, this award, named after the legendary poet Jayanta Mahapatra, is conferred upon a distinguished poet writing in English every year.

The 1st JMNAfL was given to noted poet Gopal Lahiri in the Toshali Literature Festival February 2024.