Every year, the ZEE Jaipur
Literature Festival celebrates poetry as one of literature’s most effective and
powerful art forms and recognises the best among India’s plethora of young and
talented poets announcing the Mahakavi
Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry. In association with the Mahakavi
Kanhaiyalal Sethia Foundation, the award is a tribute to Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal
Sethia and his immense repertoire. In addition to a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh,
the winner receives an opportunity to share the stage with literary heavyweights
at the Festival.
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Mahakavi
Kanhaiyalal Sethia was a renowned Rajasthani and Hindi
poet. The internationally acclaimed writer authored a total of 42 books in
Hindi, Urdu and Rajasthani. He was a Freedom fighter, social reformer,
educationist and environmentalist who received the Padma Shri in 2004 and the
Rajasthan Ratna in 2012. He was selected as a “Living Legend of the 20th
Century” on the occasion of the bi-centenary celebration of the US
Library of Congress in Washington.
The fourth edition of the
award has been awarded to Rajathi Salma, a well-known name to readers of
contemporary Tamil literature who will be felicitated at the ZEE
Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 at Diggi Palace on the 27th of
January at 4:30 pm.
With two volumes of
poetry, a short story anthology and two novels, several of which have been
translated to other languages, Salma has made her mark as a distinctive
literary voice. Lakshmi Holmstrom’s English translation of her novel, entitled The Hour Past Midnight, was shortlisted
for the Crossword Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Asian DSC Award.
Salma has been the
recipient of several awards and honours, and has also been a special invitee to
several book festivals and seminars. She was the only representative of Tamil
literature when the University of Chicago organized a two-day seminar, as part
of the annual Norman J. Cutler Conference, to discuss her literary works. Salma
has been a committed public servant and was the elected President of the
Ponnampatti Town Panchayat between 2001-2006 as well as Chairperson of the
Social Welfare Board, Govt. of Tamil Nadu.
The Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award is given out
after a careful selection process by an eminent jury comprising renowned
litterateurs and discerning art aficionados like Namita Gokhale, Sanjoy K. Roy, Sukrita Paul, Sudeep Sen, and Jaiprakash
Sethia.
On the announcement of the award,
Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts which organises the ZEE
Jaipur Literature Festival annually, said, “Every year it is our endeavour to
provide a democratic platform to young artists, writers and poets to showcase
their talent at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. The introduction of the
Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry recognizes extraordinary work in
poetry. In the last few years, there was a lot of focus on poetry with one of
our themes being ‘Poetic Imagination’ and this year we have taken another step
to promote and appreciate the art form.”
Jury member Jaiprakash Sethia said, “Shri
Sethia had the rare distinction of becoming a legend during his lifetime. A conservative estimate is more than 15
million people globally were aware of Sethiaji and his body of work.”
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