Ten eminent writers to receive Bangla Academy Literary Award

They include playwright Syed Jamil Ahmed and essayist Salimullah Khan

Bangla Academy has announced the names of 10 winners of its 2024 literature awards.

Playwright Syed Jamil Ahmed and essayist Salimullah Khan will receive the Bangla Academy Literary Award among others.

The academy's public relations department announced the names of the awardees in ten categories for the year 2024 in a media statement on Thursday.

This year, Masud Khan will receive the award for poetry, Selim Morshed for fiction, and Shubhashish Sinha for drama and playwriting.

Salimullah will be awarded for essays or prose, Faruk Nawaz for children's literature, and GH Habib for translation.

Moreover, Mohammad Shahjahan Mia will receive the award for research, Rezaur Rahman for science, Mohammad Hanan for the Liberation War, and Syed Jamil Ahmed for folklore.

Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus will formally present the awards at the inauguration ceremony of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Feb 1.

The academy has been awarding this prize regularly since 1960, five years after its establishment in 1955.

According to the Bangla Academy website, the purpose of this award is to "create a conducive environment for education and culture by recognising the creative genius of contemporary living writers of the Bengali language and literature through identifying their overall original contributions."