Bhubaneswar: Veteran Odia writer and former Chief Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra will receive the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2019 for his short story collection ‘Bhaswati’.
Names of the awardees in 23 Indian languages, including Mishra were recommended by jury members and approved by the Executive Board of Sahitya Akademi which met under the chairmanship of Kendra Sahitya Akademi president Dr Chandrasekhar Kambar on Wednesday.
Mishra will be honoured with the award on February 25, 2020 at New Delhi during a festival organised by Sahitya Akademi. The award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl, and an amount of Rs 1 lakh cash will be presented to Mishra.
So far the former bureaucrat has published over 200 short stories.
Mishra, a 1975-batch IAS officer retired from the service as the Chief Secretary. He published short stories in different literary magazines while he was in school. His first anthology of short stories appeared in 1968.
He has also authored a novel against the backdrop of Dandakaranya, a vast territory inhabited by immigrants of erstwhile East Pakistan and a large tribal population.
