Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2016 winners were declared on Thursday, and the list includes Raghu Karnad (English) for Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, Raka Dasgupta (Bengali) for her book of poems, Aparanha Downtown, Nilotpal Mrinal (Hindi) for the novel Dark Horse: Ek Ankahi Dastan, among others. Raghu Karnad is a journalist and son of prominent Indian film personality and writer Girish Karnad.
His debut non-fiction epic spans across Singapore, Eritrea, Libya, El Alamein, Basra, Arakan and Imphal as he tells the story of three men from the same family serving the Indian Army during the World War II. Karnad fills up "the large blanks in the hegemonic Anglo-American view of World War II, part of a necessary excavation of suppressed and ignored histories," novelist Pankaj Mishra wrote about the book in The New York Times.
The award honours young writers for their work in 24 languages every year. The Akademi uploaded a list of the award winners on Twitter on Thursday.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!