Noted Khasi writer to receive literary award

SHILLONG, Nov 6: Noted Khasi writer and poet Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih has been chosen for this year’s SPARROW-R THYAGARAJAN Literary Award 2022.
Hailing from Sohra, Nongkynrih is a poet, writer, as well as translator. He writes in both Khasi and English.
Nongkynrih is among the first Khasi writers to be published by Penguin, HarperCollins and Oxford University Press. He has a total of 10 books in Khasi and 12 in English, besides edited volumes and translations of poetry and short stories in both Khasi and English. He has won many prestigious awards for his writing.
He is currently a professor in the Department of English at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, where he lives.
The genre for this year’s SPARROW-R THYAGARAJAN Literary Award 2022 was poetry. The SPARROW literary awards are normally given to a woman and a man writing in Tamil and either a woman or a man for the non-Tamil language category, according to a statement issued here.
SPARROW decided to choose two languages in the ‘other language’ category, which were Khasi and Bodo.
However, the awardees this year in Tamil category are Tamil poets Ponmugali and VN Surya.
Nongkynrih is joined by Bodo poet Anju Basumatary as well to receive the literary award under the other language category.