Ranjit Hoskote wins Seventh Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Poetry Award 2022

Team L&M

Critically acclaimed poet Ranjit Hoskote was announced the winner of the Seventh Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Poetry Award 2022. The Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Foundation tributes Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia with this annual recognition of the best poets in India. The award ceremony was held on the 8^th day of the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival at Clarks Amer in Jaipur. He was selected by an eminent jury comprising of respected literary personalities – Namita Gokhale, Sanjoy K. Roy, Jaiprakash Sethia, Nirupama Dutt, and Siddharth Sethia of the KL Sethia Foundation.

Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, translator and curator. Hoskote’s seven collections of poetry include Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems (Penguin, 2006), Central Time (Penguin, 2014), Jonahwhale (Penguin, 2018; published by Arc in the UK as The Atlas of Lost Beliefs, 2020) and, most recently, Hunchprose (Penguin, 2021).

His translation of a celebrated 14th-century Kashmiri woman saint’s poetry has appeared as I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded (Penguin Classics, 2011). Hoskote curated India’s first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011) and was co-curator of the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008). He has received the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award, the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award, and the SH Raza Literature Award.

Commenting on the occasion, Ranjit Hoskote says, ‘I have great respect for this award because it is named for a figure who contributed to three languages—Hindi, Rajasthani and Urdu. As a believer in the vital importance of multilingual experience for literary creativity, I feel particularly blessed.’

Manasi Subramaniam, Associate Publisher & Head of Rights, Penguin Random House India, says, “Ranjit Hoskote is an extraordinary poet and prose stylist, remarkable not only for the deftness of his wordplay and the subtlety of his imagery, but also for his generosity of spirit. We are privileged to be his publishers and this award is richly deserved.”

Hoskote receives cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh and a memento of appreciation along with a felicitation.