Bhubaneswar: Eminent writer Pratibha Ray has been appointed chairperson of Bharatiya Jnanpith Selection Board.
She was earlier a member of the Board.
Ray is the first first Odia woman and fourth Odia writer to get the Jnanpith Award, country’s highest award for literature, in 2011. She was also the first woman writer to receive National Moortidevi Award by Bharatiya Jnanpith in 1991 for her magnum opus ‘Yajnaseni’.
Born in Balikuda of Jagatsinghpur district, she is the daughter of well-known Gandhian and poet Parshuram Das. She published her first novel ‘Barsa Basanta Baishakha’ in 1974.
Her other literary works are ‘Barsa Basanta Baishakha’ (1974), ‘Aranya’ (1977), ‘Nishidha Prithivi’ (1978), ‘Parichya’ (1979), ‘Aparichita’ (1979), Punyatoya (1979), Meghamedura (1980), Ashabari (1980), Ayamarambha (1981), Nilatrishna (1981), Samudrara Swara (1982).
Ray was conferred with the Orissa Sahitya Academy Award for ‘Shilapadma’ in 1985 and the Sarala Award for ‘Yajnaseni’ in 1990.
