Bangla Academy award goes to 12

Twelve personalities have been named as winners of the Bangla Academy Sahitya Puroshkar 2017.

Shamsuzzaman Khan, director general of Bangla Academy, announced the names at a press briefing at the academy's Shamsur Rehman auditorium yesterday.

The winners are Mohammad Sadik and Maruful Islam (poetry), Mamun Hossain (fiction), Mahbubul Haque (essay), Rafiqullah Khan (research), Aminur Rahman Bhuiyan (translation), Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan and Surma Jahid (literature on Liberation War), Shakur Majid (biography and travelogue), Maloy Bhoumik (drama), Moshtak Ahmed (science, technology and environment) and Jhrana Dash Purokhayshto (juvenile literature).

They will receive a cheque of Tk 1 lakh each.

Bangla Academy Sahitya Puroshkar (Bangla Academy Literary Award) is given in recognition of creative genius in advancement and overall contribution in the field of Bengali language and literature.

The award was introduced in 1960 with six categories: poetry, novels, short stories, essays, juvenile literature and translation. Two more awards were introduced in 1985 to recognise the overall contributions to Bengali language and literature.