Bengaluru: Kannada literature has received the highest number of Jnanapeeta awards, which is a huge achievement of the literary world of Kannada.
According to reports in recent times, Sahitya Akademi Yuva awards for Kannada literature were conferred mainly on poetry and small story collections as there was a dearth of young novelists in Kannada literature.
It was a moment of pride for Kannada literature when Sridhara Banavasi received the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2019 for his Kannada novel ‘Beru’.
The ‘Yuva Puraskar’, also known as Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, is a literary honour in India, which Sahitya Akademi confers annually on young writers for their outstanding works in one of the twenty-four major Indian languages. Instituted in 2011, the Yuva Puraskar recognises young writers under the age of 35 years, with the aim to encourage and promote young writers. The award comprises a purse of Rs. 50,000 and an engraved copper plaque.
Sridhara Banavasi is a native of Banavasi of Sirsi taluk in Uttara Kannada district. After completing his early education in Ujire, he completed his engineering and journalism course from Davangere.
Sridhar later left his engineering job and started his creative writing in Kannada literature.
Even though Sridhar was writing when he was working in his earlier jobs he had not published any of his literary works. His first novel ‘Beru’ has been published under his pen name ‘Fakira’. Along with the Yuva Puraskar of the Sahitya Akademi, this novel has received Kannada Sahitya Academi ‘Gubbi Soluru Murugharadhya Award’, Shivamogga Karnataka Sangha ‘Kuvempu Award’, Belagavi Basavaraja Kattimani Prasthana ‘Basavaraja Kattimani Yuvasahitya Award’, Karnataka Sahitya Academi ‘Chaduranga Award’ and other such awards creating a proud moment to the Kannada literature world.
During initial days of his literary work, Sridhar had sent few of his writings to publishers but none had them published. This made him a little dejected, but later with the guidance of writer Keggere Prakash, Sridhar started ‘Panchami Prakashana’ ( Panchami Publishers) and published nine of his books.
The Kannada literary world is waiting for more contributions from Sridhar Banawasi.
