Odia Litterateur Gayatribala Panda Nominated For Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award 2022

Bhubaneswar: Odia litterateur Gayatribala Panda has been nominated for Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for 2022.

The Kendra Sahitya Akademi on Thursday announced its annual awards in 23 different languages. The awards have been conferred for seven books of poetry, six novels, two short stories, three plays/dramas, two literary criticisms, one each for autobiographical essays, collection of articles and literary history. The litterateurs were selected for the award on the basis of recommendations made by a three-member jury panel.

Panda has been selected in the Poetry category for her poem compilation ‘Dayanadi’, published by Pakshighar Prakashani in 2017. ‘Dayanadi’ is based on the Kalinga War. It contains 64 poems. The award carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh, a shawl and a citation (engraved copper plaque). She will recieve the award at a special function to be held later.

Previously, she had won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi award in 2011 for her poem compilation ‘Gaan’ in the youth writer category.

Panda has published 25 books of short stories, novels, and articles so far. Those include 12 collections of poems, two collections of stories, two novels and one collection of essays in Odia.

Besides, she has five collections of poems in Hindi and two collections of poems and one collection of stories in English to her credit. A popular writer, she has been contributing to newspaper columns in her writing career spanning three decades.