Twelve personalities have been declared as recipients of the Bangla Academy Sahitya Puraskar 2017.

Director General of Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan announced the names at a press briefing at the Shamsur Rehman auditorium on Saturday, reports the UNB.

The recipients are — Mohammad Sadik and Maruful Islam (poetry), Mamun Hossain (fiction), Professor Mahbubul Haque (essay),Professor Rafiqullah Khan (research), Aminur Rahman Bhuiyan (translation), Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan and Surma Jahid (literature on Liberation War), Shakur Majid (biography and travelogue), Maloy Bhoumik (drama), Moshtak Ahmed (science, technology and environment) and Jhrana Dash Purokhayshto (juvenile literature).

The winners will receive a cheque of Tk 1 each lakh this year while the recipients will get the Tk. 2 lakh from the next award.

Last year, eleven personalities have been declared recipients for Bangla Academy Sahitya Puraskar 2016.

The recipients are Altaf Hossain (poetry), Shaheen Akhtar (fiction), Abul Momen and Atiur Rahman (jointly for essay), Moniruzzaman (research), Abdus Selim (translation), Tajul Mohammad (literature on Liberation War), Faruk Chowdhury (biography and travelogue), Masum Reza (drama), Sharif Khan (science, technology and environment) and Sujan Barua (juvenile literature).

Bangla Academy Shahitya Puroshkar (Bangla Academy Literary Award), is given by the Bangla Academy of Bangladesh in recognition of creative genius in advancement and overall contribution in the field of Bengali language and literature.

It was introduced in 1960 and recognized six categories: poetry, novels, short stories, essays, juvenile literature and translation. Beginning in 1985, two more awards were introduced to recognise overall contributions to Bengali language and literature.