GUWAHATI, Feb 3 - Williamson Magor Education Trust, the sponsor of the Assam Valley Literary Award, has announced the names of three luminaries of Assamese literature for the 2017 Assam Valley Literary Award. The winners of the 2017 award, which is the 28th edition of the prestigious award, are poet Sananta Tanti and novelists Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi and Dr Rita Chowdhury.
In a press release here this evening, the Trust said that the award has been conferred on these three eminent litterateurs from different spectrums of society as a lifetime achievement award. The award will be formally presented to them at a function scheduled to be held in Guwahati in March next.
Born in an Oriya-speaking tea garden family in Kalinagar Tea Estate in Karimganj district in 1952, Sananta Tanti, during his youth was exposed to Assamese literature with which he instantly fell in love. He has 13 collections of poems to his credit, all highly acclaimed by readers and critics alike.
He has won several awards, including Mrinalini Devi Goswami Award, Bir Birsa Munda Award, Krantikal Samman, Nizara Kavi Sailadhar Rajkhowa Award and Sirish OIL Literary Award.
Born in 1952 at Jigaon of West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, Yeshe Dorje Thongsi was a civil servant. He was inducted to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1992 and retired as the Chief Information Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh in 2015.
Thongchi�s mother tongue is a dialect called Sherdukpen spoken by few thousand people. He, however, started writing in Assamese language which was the medium of instruction in schools of the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) as the state was known in those days.
He has to his credit several novels, short stories and plays. He won Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for his novel Mouna Onth Mukhar Hriday. His other prominent works include novels such as Sonam, Lingjhik, Mishing and Moi Akou Janam Lom. He has also been conferred a number of literary awards and recognitions.
Born in 1960, Dr Rita Chowdhury is an established poet, novelist and Sahitya Akademi Award recipient. She has been working as an associate professor in Cotton College, Guwahati in political science department since 2001. She is currently the director of National Book Trust, India.
A prolific writer, Dr Chowdhury has an immense body of work and has to her credit several novels, including Abirata Jatra, Tirthabhumi, Jala Padma, Deo Langkhui and Makam. She also has several books on poetry to her credit. She has been awarded with a number of literary awards and recognitions, major among them being Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Lekhika Samaroh Sahitya Bota.