Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 20: Literary works of Vijay Verma and Manshoor Banihali have been selected for prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards for the year 2023.
In the category of poetry, Vijay Verma’s Dogri work “Daun Sadiyan Ek Seer” and Manshoor Banihali’s “Yeth Wawh Halay Tsong Kous Zalay” in Kashmiri have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards.
Vijay Verma is a renowned Dogri poet, author, translator and broadcaster. Born in Seri Panditan, Jammu, he served as Senior News Reader Translator for Dogri at All India Radio. He started writing poetry during school days and wrote in Dogri, English as well as in Hindi.
Vijay Verma is also recipient of “The Best Young Dogri Poet” award of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in the year 1994. He has six books to his credit including “Daun Sadian Ek Seer” which is single largest Dogri Ghazal book with 721 couplets.
The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawal and an amount of Rs one lakh towards cash content each will be presented to the awardees at the award presentation function on March 12, 2024 at New Delhi.
The awards recommended by distinguished Jury members were approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi, which met today under the chairmanship of Madhav Kaushak, President of Sahitya Akademi.