GUWAHATI, July 19 � Eminent author Arup Kumar Dutta has been chosen for the �Lifetime Achievement Award� by the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC), New Delhi, and the Indian Chapter of the International Board on Books for Young People for his contribution to children�s literature.
A communiqu� from the AWIC states that the organisation has decided to present the AWIC Honour Award 2013 to the author �in recognition of the impressive and significant contribution that you have made as an Author-English of children�s books.�
The award presentation function will be held during the International Conference on Literacy through Literature, to be held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi from February 6-8, 2014. A distinguished gathering of delegates from all over the world will be present on the occasion.
A prolific and versatile writer, Arup Kumar Dutta, who writes both for adults and young people, is one of the few individuals from the North East to have made his mark at the national and international level. He has also achieved international repute with his fictions for young people and ranks among the biggest names in this field. His juvenile novels include acknowledged classics such as The Kaziranga Trail, The Blind Witness, and Smack. He has also penned a number of best-sellers like The Boy Who Became King, Footprints in the Sand, Lure of Zangrila, etc. Apart from Indian languages, some of these books have been translated into a number of foreign languages, including German, Japanese, Russian, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, etc.
Three of these books have been made into feature films and two are featured in the �Literature of the World� series brought out by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun along with those of Satyajit Ray and Ruskin Bond. The prestigious New York publication titled 1001 Children�s Books You Must read Before You Grow Up, edited by Julia Eccleshare, has The Kaziranga Trail along with Anita Desai�s Village by the Sea as the only Indian entries.