Prakash Parienkar bags Sahitya Akademi Award

PANJIM: Prakash Parienkar, a versatile writer from Sattari taluka bagged this year’s Sahitya Akademi Award for his short story collection ‘Varsal’ in Konkani.

Sahitya Akademi president Madhav Kaushik announced this along with the books in other 23 Indian languages, at a press conference held in New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.

Nine books of poetry, six novels, five short story collections, three essays and one literary study have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards this year.

The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members on the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose. The awards related to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award i.e. (between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2021).

Dr Fr Melwyn Pinto, Neelba Khandekar and Vincy Quadros were the jury members for the Konkani language.

The awards would be presented on March 12, 2024 at New Delhi, on the occasion of the 70th Foundation Day of the premiere literary institution in the country. 

The Award consists of an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and cash Rs 1 lakh.

‘Varsal’, the collection of stories in Konkani, was published by Jaag Prakashan in 2021. 

The book has also been translated into Kannada by Dr Geeta Shenoi as “Varsal Mattu Ithara Latkagalu” and its title story ‘Varsal’ was translated into English by Vidya Pai and published in Govapuri in 2000.

Parienkar had also bagged the Sahitya Akademi Award for Children’s Literature in 2010 for the children’s play ‘Igadi Bigadi Tigadi Tha’. 

He bagged his first national award of Katha from New Delhi in 2003, at the age of 35, for his Konkani story ‘Chandrakor’. He has eight books to his credit to date, besides six translated works. 

Parienkar’s short stories have also been translated into Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Odia, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Urdu, English and Portuguese.

He has also written screenplays for films and short films and full-length films have been produced based on his short stories. Many of them have been screened at the international film festivals across the Globe. 

Kaajro, a short film based on his Konkani short story, bagged the prestigious 67th National Film Award as the Best Regional Film.