GUWAHATI, Dec 31 � Distinguished story writer Atulananda Goswami has been chosen for the prestigious Assam Valley Literary Award for the year 2013, in recognition of his contribution to the world of literature. The Award will be presented to Goswami at a function to be held in the city in March next year.
This is the 24th edition of the Award, which was instituted by the Williamson Magor Education Trust in 1990, in a bid to preserve and promote the rich literary heritage of Assam.
Born in 1935 at Kokila Adhar Satra at Rongdoi in Jorhat, Atulananda Goswami has seven collection of short stories-Hamdoi Pular Jon (1966), Galpa (1967), Rajpaat (1976), Palatak (1983), Asraya (1993), Seneh Jarir Ganthi (2003) and Baibhav Bilap (2004), to his credit. He has penned three novels - Namghariya (1990), Kakaideo (2009) and Orchid (2010). Besides, he has one collection in English-Negro Couple in search of Siva (1994).
His novels and short stories have received critical acclaim. He has translated many books from English, Bengali and Oriya into Assamese and has translated his own stories and the works of many other Assamese authors into English.
A former Assistant Commissioner of Taxes of the State Government, Goswami has been holding the post of the president of Shishu Siksha Samiti for more than ten years. The Samiti is monitoring nearly 500 secondary schools in the State.
He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006 for his short story collection Seneh Jarir Ganthi. The awards won by Goswami include � the 1991 Ambikagiri Roy Choudhury Sahitya Bota and the 1997 Kumar Kishore Sowarani Bota (for Namghariya), 1992 Katha Award (for Balia Hati) and the 1998 Sneha Bharati Sahitya Samman.
The National Book Trust has selected Goswami's Namghariya for translation into twelve languages and it has been included in the BA course of Dibrugarh University. The Oxford University Press has included his translation of the Balia Hati into English, titled as -The Rogue, in their Avenues series. The English version of his short story Baibhav Bilap, titled as A Birthday Party, is a text book of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam.
