NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Malayalam litterateur and poet par excellence ONV Kurup, who sang ‘being a human being was much greater than being anything else, even a poet,’ has been chosen for the 2007 Jnanapith award for his contribution to literature.
The country’s highest literary honour was announced here on Friday after a meeting of the Jnanpith Selection Board chaired by Oriya writer and Jnanpith award winner Sitakant Mahapatra. According to a statement by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, the trust which presents the award, Kurup began his career as a progressive writer and matured into a humanist though he never gave up his commitment to socialist ideology.
The award brought special cheer to connoisseurs of poetry as ONV is the second poet to bag the coveted award from Kerala.
G Sankara Kurup was honoured with the award in 1965.
Though SK Pottekkad,Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and MT Vasudevan Nair had been honoured with the award, they were all writers of prose.