Three dropped as seven named for Bangla Academy Literary Award

No awards will be given this year for Liberation War, fiction, and children's literature

Bangla Academy has released a revised list of recipients for the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2024 after its executive council reviewed the previous selection.

The decision was made during a late-night reconsideration meeting on Wednesday.

The new list features seven awardees, down from the initial 10.

This year’s winners include Masud Khan in poetry, Subhashis Sinha in drama and theatre, Salimullah Khan in essays and prose, GH Habib in translation, Muhammad Shahjahan Mia in research, Rezaur Rahman in science, and Syed Jamil Ahmed in folklore.

The academy had announced the awards last Thursday but suspended them on Saturday following complaints against some recipients.

After three working days of review, the executive council finalised and published the new list.

Following the suspension, writer Selim Morshed, initially selected in the fiction category, rejected the award.

Meanwhile, the academy has scrapped awards for Faruk Nawaz in children’s literature and Mohammed Hannan in liberation war literature.

The academy’s public relations department said in a media statement: “According to Chapter 4, Clause 9 of the Bangla Academy Literary Award guidelines, the executive council cannot select new recipients. Clause 10 empowers the executive council to disregard previously recommended names.”

Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus is scheduled to present the awards at the inauguration of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Feb 1.