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Easterine Kire’s novel 'Spirit Nights’ wins Sahitya Akademi Award

Published on Dec 18, 2024

By Reyivolü Rhakho

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  • KOHIMA — Poet and author Dr. Easterine Kire has been named among 21 writers across the country to be honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award 2024.

  • Her novel, 'Spirit Nights,' released in 2022, won her the award. The Sahitya Akademi on Wednesday announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 21 languages.

  • The categories awarded included eight poetry books, three novels, two short stories, three essays, three literary criticisms, one play, and one research.

  • The 21 awardees for this year are Sameer Tanti (Assamese), Dileep Jhaveri (Gujarati), Gagan Gill (Hindi), K Jayakumar (Malayalam), Haobam Satyabati Devi (Manipuri), Paul Kaur (Punjabi), Mukut Maniraj (Rajasthani), Dipak Kumar Sharma (Sanskrit), Aron Raja (Bodo), Easterine Kire (English), Sohal Koul (Kashmiri), Yuva Baral (Nepali), Hundraj Balwani (Sindhi), Mukesh Thali (Konkani), Mahendra Malangia (Maithili), Baishnab Charan Samal (Odia), KV Narayana (Kannada), Sudhir Rasal (Marathi), Penugonda Lakshminarayana (Telugu), Maheshwar Soren (Santali), and AR Venkatachalapathy (Tamil).

  • The award in Bengali, Dogri, and Urdu will be declared at a later stage, the academy stated in the update.

  • The awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of the award (i.e., between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022).

  • It comes with an engraved copper plaque, a shawl, and an amount of INR 1 lakh each to awardees, which will be presented next year on March 8.

  • Kire has won several awards in the past years for her works, including the Governor's Medal for Excellence in Naga Literature, the Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2018, the Hindu Literary Prize 2015, and the first Gordon Graham Prize for Naga Literature.

  • Spirit Nights is “inspired by a story of darkness narrated by the Chang Naga tribe.”

  • Her latest book, titled 'Freerain,' will be released on December 21.