Bhubaneswar: Poet Gayatribala Panda was conferred with Kendra Sahitya Academy Award for 2022 for her poetry collection, ‘Daya Nadi’, during the 39th Festival of Letters, a special event, in New Delhi.
She received an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and Rs 1 lakh from newly-elected president of the Akademi, Madhav Kaushik on Saturday.
‘Daya Nadi’ is a poetic explanation of the Daya river, which was a witness to the historical Kalinga War fought on its banks in the foothills of Dhauli. It has been translated into Hindi as well.
Gayatribala is also the recipient of first Kendra Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in Odia for her poetry collection ‘Gaan’ in 2011. She was the “Writers in-Residence” at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2015. She has so far authored 25 books, including 12 collections of poems, two collections of short stories, four novels and one collection of essays. She also edits a literary magazine ‘Anya’.
