BHUBANESWAR: Author and former Chief Secretary of Odisha, Tarun Kanti Mishra, will be conferred with Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award-2019 for his book of short stories ‘Bhaswati’.
This was announced by Akademi Secretary Dr K Sreenivasrao in New Delhi on Wednesday. The book has 15 short stories dealing with people of different age groups, situations and events. "I feel very happy for being selected for the prestigious award. But the real happiness of a writer lies in the acceptance of his work by his readers and I have been fortunate that my stories have been time and again liked by people, "says Mishra, who wrote his first anthology of short stories ‘Aabrtara Duiti Swara’ at the age of 17 when he was a student of BJB College.
So far, he has authored 250 short stories and 20 books on various subjects and one novel that is set against the backdrop of Dandakaranya. Mishra began writing when he was in school and published his first story for a school magazine when he was in Class VII.
The central theme of many of his stories is human predicament. He has been writing on hunger, deprivation, opulence and hypocrisy of modern times. For his contribution to Odia literature, Mishra has been accorded the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award and Sarala Award in the past.
Mishra joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1975 and prior to being the Chief Secretary, he was the Secretary of at least 10 departments. After his retirement in 2010, Government appointed him as State Information Commissioner in November that year. Santali writer Kali Charan Hembram was also selected for the award for his book of short stories 'Sisirjali'.