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Poet and diplomat Abhay K. has been awarded the Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry 2026 at the second edition of the Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards, organisers announced on Wednesday. The announcement was made at a curtain-raiser and outreach event held at the Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering & Technology in Delhi NCR.
The ceremony, marked by dignity, intellectual seriousness and literary distinction, highlighted the growing credibility of the Banaras Lit Fest as one of India's important contemporary literary platforms. The festival organisers said the awards seek to recognise writing rooted in tradition while engaging meaningfully with present-day realities. Abhay K. received the poetry honour for his lyrical and singable English translation of Sri Hanuman Chalisa, published by Bloomsbury India. Chosen from a shortlist by a jury of five prominent contemporary Indian poets, the translation was praised for preserving the rhythm, rhyme and energy of Tulsidas' 15th-century Awadhi original. The jury noted that the work bridges ancient devotional literature with modern values such as courage, resilience and selfless service, making it accessible to younger and global audiences. On the same occasion, noted author and publisher Namita Gokhale was conferred the Bhartendu Harishchandra Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her sustained contribution to Indian literature and publishing. In the English-language categories, Shinie Antony won the Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction for Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith, while Peggy Mohan received the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Non-Fiction for Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Language in South Asia. The Rabindranath Tagore Award for Translation went to Arunava Sinha for his translation of Limited / Unlimited by Sankar from Bengali. Hindi-language awards included the Premchand Award for Fiction to Mamta Kalia, the Kabir Award for Poetry to Udayan Vajpeyi, the Rahul Sankrityayan Award for Non-Fiction to J. Sushil, and the Mahadevi Verma Award for Translation to Rajgopal Singh Verma. Special honours were presented to Mahadev Toppo and Parag Pawan. (ANI)
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