VIJAYAWADA: A distinguished scholar, writer, translator and critic, Professor Velcheru Narayana Rao has been elected honorary fellow of Sahitya Akademi, the highest literary honour in the country. The general council of Sahitya Akademi, in its ninety second meeting held on Friday under the chairmanship of Dr Chandrasekhar Kambar, took the decision.
Narayana Rao is the 14th scholar to be elected the honorary fellow of the Akademi. Previous honorary fellows include Leopold Sedar Senghor, Kamil V Zvelebil, Sir VS Naipaul an Prof Daniel HH Ingalls. The election of Narayana Rao was made based on his contribution to the Telugu literature. His publications include Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam; A play from Colonial India; God on Hill: Temple Songs from Tirupati with David Shulman; Textures of Time: Writing History of South India, co-authored with Sanjay Subrahmanyam and David Shulman; and Hibiscus on the Lake: Twentieth Century Telugu Poetry from India.