HYDERABAD: Gorati Venkanna was born in Gowraram village in Nagarkurnool district to Narsimha and Eramma couple. He did his MA in Osmania University and later worked as Sub-divisional cooperative officer. Venkanna penned several books including Ekunadam Motha, Relapoothalu (selected as Telugu University Uttama Geya Samputi Puraskaram), Alasendra Vanka, Pusina Punnami and others.
He penned the award-winning Vallankitaalam in 2019. The books to be published included Raavineeda, Soyagam, Paatakathe na katha and Palgadi. Venkanna won numerous awards which included Hamsa Award in 2006, Kaloji Puraskaram by the state government in 2016, Cinare Award, Adhikarabasha Sangham Puraskaram, Ugadi Puraskaram by the state government in 2014.
The Osmania University awarded a PhD to Chara Gonda Venkatesh on Gorati Venkanna’s Sahitya Parishilana. Venkanna’s poetry collection is being translated into Kannada and Tamil.
Venkanna also penned several songs for Telugu movies. The most prestigious song - Pallekanneeru peduthundi for Telugu film Kubusam, 2002. The Pallekanneeru poem was selected in syllabus for Open School by the AP government for Class V Telugu and also Osmania University Degree syllabus (Distance), published at Oxford University. Nalgonda Degree College (autonomous) included Venkanna’s poem Sancharame entho bagunnadi in Telugu syllabus.
He participated in a seminar on racial discrimination conducted by the UNO in Durban (South Africa). He also visited the US, Australia, the UK, Kuwait and Singapore and participated in literary programmes.