Sahitya Akademi to reach out to rural areas through Gramlok

Apart from the outreach project, the Akademi proposes to publish 500 books in 24 recognised Indian languages this year.  

Sahitya Akademi Chennai Officer-in-Charge A S Ilangovan told reporters here on Saturday that the first of the kind initiative of the  Akademi called ‘Gramlok’ will take place at Ponkulathur village near Villuppuram district on February 17. In the programme, the Akademi will take the literary activities to the rural people. “Similar programmes will be conducted in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Sivaganga districts in Tamil Nadu and in the villages in Puducherry,” he added. 

The Akademi had published 600 books last year and a majority of them were translated versions, said Ilangovan. 

“The Sahitya Akademi proposes to publish 500 books in 24 recognised Indian languages, conduct around 540 literary events and participate in 220 book exhibitions all over India in 2017,” he said. In Tamil, around 60 new titles would be published, besides organising 40 literary programmes and 30 book exhibitions this year, he added.

A two-day seminar on ‘Recent trends in South Indian Literature’ would be held here on February 6 and 7.

The event, to be organised by the Sahitya Akademi in association with Tamil Perayam (Tamil Academy) of SRM University, would be inaugurated by Akademi Secretary and Chief Executive Office. 

Dr K Sreenivasarao in the presence of University Founder Chancellor TR Pachamuthu. This was for the first time a conference on the four South Indian languages was being held. 

It was also for the first time Sahitya Akademi was holding such an event involving four languages in Tamil Nadu, Sahitya Akademi Chennai Officer-in-Charge A S Ilangovan, SRM University Registrar N Sethuraman and Tamil Peryam president T P Ganesan told reporters on Saturday. 

More than 600 young scholars were expected to participate in the seminar. 

Leading literary savants from four southern languages — renowned Telugu Poet Dr N Gopi, veteran Tamil scholar Dr K Nachimuthu, Kannada critic Dr Naganna and eminent Malayalam litterateur V Rajakrishnan and host of scholars and poets would be attending the event, to be held at the SRM University campus at suburban  Kattankulathur. 

Ilangovan said the recent trends in short stories, poetry and criticism would be analysed in the seminar, which was being organised not only for the researchers and literary persons, but for all.