Chennai: The Sahitya Akademi awards for the year 2020 were announced today. Among the winners from south Indian languages are Tamil writer Imaiyam for his novel Sellaatha Panam, former Karnataka Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily for his poetry Sri Bahubali Ahimsa Digvijayam, and Telugu poet Nikhileswar for his poetry collection Agniswaasa (2015-2017).
Arundhathi Subramaniam won the award for her poetry collection When God is a Traveller in English. Others who won the award in poetry include Harish Meenakshi (Gujarati), Anamika (Hindi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Irungbam Deven (Manipuri) and Rupchand Hansda (Santali).
Nanda Khare (Marathi), Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam (Sanskrit), Imaiyam (Tamil) and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque have been selected for the coveted award for their novels.
Apurba Kumar Saikia (Assamese), (late) Dharanidhar Owari (Bodo), (late) Hiday Koul Bharti (Kashmiri), Kamakant Jha (Maithili) and Gurdev Singh Rupana (Punjab) have won the award for short stories.
The awards for Malayalam, Nepali, Odia and Rajasthani languages will be announced at a later date, the Akademi said in a statement.