Novelist U. K. Kumaran to get Vayalar Award
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Thiruvananthapuram: Well known novelist U. K. Kumaran has been selected for this year’s Vayalar Award for his work ‘Thakshankunnu Swaroopam’.
A sum of Rs.100000/-, a bronze plate and certificate constitute the award.
Kumaran was selected for the prestigious award by a panel that included A K Sanu, Sethu, M Mukunthan, and Kadathanadu Narayanan.
The award will be presented at a programme to be held at AKG Hall here on October 27.
A short-story writer, essayist and journalist, Kumaran has received numerous awards and recognitions including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Policukarante Penmakkal (2011) and Vaikom Chandrasekharan Nair Award for Thakshankunnu Swaroopam (2012).
Kumaran was born in Payyoli, Kozhikode on 11 May 1950. After obtaining a degree in economics from Guruvayurappan College in Kozhikode and a diploma in Journalism and Public Relations, he started his career as a journalist in Veekshanam Vaarika as Assistant Editor.
He began his literary career with a short story "Chalanam" at the age of 17. The story emerged around people whose lives and livelihood revolved around movie announcements being made with drum beats in the Payyoli market. He wrote his first novel Valayam when still in college. An author of seven novels, he enjoys the wide canvas a novel presents.