Santanu Kumar Acharya

He is an academician and an accomplished writer. His published works include fifteen novels and an equal number of short story collections, ten story collections for children and substantial feature writings based on real life experiences with the tribal societies of Orissa. His works are prescribed as textbooks at the post graduate level. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Prize, and the Konarka Prize for his short story collection, Chalanti Thakura (1993), and the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Prize for his novel, Nara Kinnara (1970). Twice he has received the National Award for Children’s Literature from the Ministry of Education, Government of India (1962 and 1963). A senior administrator in the Education Department, Government of Orissa, in 1992 he retired as the registrar of Utkal University, Orissa.

Santanu Kumar Acharya's latest release from the YuvaKatha series: Anoma's Daughter

Pratibha Ray

She is undoubtedly one of the most gifted and accomplished amongst the contemporary short story writers and novelists in Orissa. She has an impressive corpus of eighteen novels, several short story collections, one travelogue, nine books for children and ten for neo-literates. She has received numerous awards and honours, including the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award (1985) for her novel Shilapadma, the Sarala Award for her novel Yajnaseni, the Katha Award for Creative Fiction for the story “Shapya” (1994) and the Biswv Award (1995) for her contribution to Oriya literature. She is also the first woman to receive the Moorti Devi Award of the Bharatiya Jnanpith (1991) for her path-breaking work, Yajnaseni.

Her works have been translated into almost all major Indian languages. For her PhD in Education, she has lived with and studied the lives of the Bondas, one of the most primitive tribes of Orissa. She has been teaching in various government colleges of the state for the last twenty years.

Prathiba Ray's forthcoming work with Katha: Konark