Hindi writer Alka Saraogi to get Fakir Mohan National Literary Award – Times of India

BHUBANESWAR: Alka Saraogi, a novelist and short story writer in Hindi language, will receive the Fakir Mohan National Literary Award for the year 2023. This award is given by Fakir Mohan University, Balasore in the memory of noted Odia writer Fakir Mohan Senapati.
This decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Santosh Kumar Tripathy, vice-chancellor of FM University. This award will be given to Saraogi on July 11, which happens to be the 25th foundation day of the university.
Saraogi, 62, is a recipient of the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi for her novel Kalikatha: Via Bypass. Apart from novels, she has written several short stories, said the official sources.
She will be the third person to receive the award consisting a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and a citation.
This award was instituted by the university in the year 2004 to respect the most acclaimed writers across various Indian languages and also English. Malayali writer UR Ananthamurthy was the first recipient of this literary award.
This award was first given in 2004, but it was stopped the very next year. The university reintroduced this Award last year. Tamil writer Perumal Murugan had received this last year.
Similarly, the university will confer ‘Vyasa Gauraba Samman-2023’ to Gourahari Das, noted Odia litterateur and scribe, and Sudarsan Nanda, retired IIT professor and former vice-chancellor of North Odisha University, Baripada. They will receive Rs 25,000 each with citations.
The university also gives ‘Fakir Mohan Juba Galpika Puraskar’ to a youth short story writer (below 35 years of age). This year, Sanjay Panda will get this award having Rs 5000 cash and a citation.
Fakir Mohan Senapati in whose name the award has been instituted by the university is considered to be the first Indian writer to use ‘Social Realism’ as a narrative technique in his novels and short stories while depicting the socio-cultural conditions of Odisha during the British rule. So far, Senapati’s work has been widely translated and read across literature lovers of Indian as well as foreign languages.