BHUBANESWAR: Renowned poet Ramakanta Rath will be conferred with Atibadi Jagannath Das Award for 2018, highest literary award of the State. The award will be presented to Rath at a function to be organised by Odisha Sahitya Akademi. A decision in this regard was taken on Saturday at a meeting presided over by president of Akademi Harihar Mishra. Born in Cuttack in 1934, Rath will get the award for lifetime contribution to the field of literature. Some of his popular books include ‘Kete Dinara’, ‘Sachitra Andhara’, ‘Aneka Kothari’, ‘Saptama Rutu’, ‘Sandigdha Mrugaya’, ‘Pheri Chahinle’ and ‘Sri Radha’. He has also translated the poems of Kabir.
A number of his poems have been translated into English and other Indian languages. He is a recipient of the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Saraswati Samman, Bishuva Samman and Kabir Samman. He also received the Padma Bhushan in 2006.
The Odisha Sahitya Akademi will also felicitate 15 renowned writers of the State including Managobind Mahasupakar, Satyanarayan Rath, Srikumar Chakraborty, Sitaram Bartia, Pratima Mishra, Bansidhar Sahu, Bijay Chandra Jena, Sankarsan Mangaraj, Laxmidhar Nayak, Duryodhan Das, Kumja Bihari Padhi, Prafulla Kumar Das, Sarojini Sarangi, Giri Dandsena and Braja Mohan Mishra.