4 min readKochiJun 24, 2023 12:11 PM IST
First published on: Jun 23, 2023 at 11:18 PM IST
Priya A S has won the prestigious (Kendra) Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2023 for children’s literature in the Malayalam language for her 2018 novel Perumazhayathe Kunjithalukal. She won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Children’s Literature for the same novel in 2020.
On November 1, 2018, IE Malayalam, the Malayalam news portal of The Indian Express, began its children’s literature section with the publication of Perumazhayathe Kunjithalukal. The book was featured in the Sammanapothi series by Poorna Books.
Priya A S
The (Kendra) Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar consists of Rs 50,000 and an engraved copper plaque. Panels of three members each picked the winners in each language. Dr Paul Manalil, B S Rajeev, and Mundoor Sethumadhavan were the jury members for Malayalam. Priya’s novel was selected from a list of 10 recommended books.
In 2014, Priya won (Kendra) Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for translating Arundhati Roy’s Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things into Malayalam.
Priya, 56, who recently retired as a section officer from Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat), told The Indian Express, “I wrote the novel in the backdrop of the 2018 Kerala floods. When I worked at relief camps operating at the instrumentation department at the Cusat campus in Kochi in 2018, I saw first-hand how children from different backgrounds came together and reacted to the calamity.”
She said like how rivers changed course during the floods, the story in her mind also changed track after the floods. “After the floods, I thought there was no point basing my novel around any other theme than the floods. The inspiration for the novel is each one of the lives I saw in the relief camp there,” she added.
Priya AS. Photo: Aloshy Andrew Morris
Priya thanked IE Malayalam for publishing over 300 of her stories for children. “There is no other digital platform in Malayalam giving prominence to children’s stories like IE Malayalam does. It has been publishing my stories during the summer vacation, Onam and Christmas holidays for the last few years. That has helped these stories get a wider reach among various cross sections of society,” she said.
Chithrashalabhangalude Veedu (Sree Padmanabhaswamy Award for Children’s Literature, 2006), Ammem Kunjunnim Kunjunnimammem, Kathakathappainkili, Ente Neelappovinu Enthu Patti, Daivathinu Oru Kathu from Kilikoodu are some Priya’s other books for children.
Ororo Thirivuakal, Manjamarangal Chuttilum, Jagarooka (Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for Story, 2004) and Violet Poochakalku Soo Vaikaan Thonnumpol are some of her short story anthologies.
Asked about her translation of Roy’s God of Small Things, which many had called ‘untranslatable’ for its nimble and unconventional language, Priya said, “She (Roy) used a cheeky language for the novel. It was not all easy translating it, but it was a job that I enjoyed the most. After reading it, the legendary Malayalam writer M T Vasudevan Nair told me that I used language like tying hair in various fashions. That was a memorable piece of appreciation.”
Born at Eramalloor in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of Kerala in 1967, Priya graduated in English literature from the Maharajas’s College in Kochi and later secured a master’s through a private course. She lives at her ancestral house at Eramalloor with her parents and son Tanmoy.
Priya AS. Photo Credit: Aloshy Andrew Morris 
Priya A S
Priya AS. Photo: Aloshy Andrew Morris
Share
