After a brief suspension, Bangla Academy has published a revised list of winners for its prestigious Literary Award 2024. The finalised list was announced on Wednesday (Jan 29) night, following a reevaluation meeting by the Bangla Academy Executive Council. In a press release, the academy confirmed, "The Bangla Academy Executive Council held a reevaluation meeting on Wednesday (Jan 29) where the previously suspended awardee list was finalised." Originally, the list included 10 poets, writers, and researchers. However, after the review, the final version now names seven recipients.
The 2024 Bangla Academy Literary Award winners are: Masud Khan for poetry, Prof Salimullah Khan for essays, GH Habib for translation, Subhasish Sinha for drama and playwriting, Muhammad Shahjahan Mia for research, Rezaur Rahman for science, and Syed Jamil Ahmed for folklore.
The previous list included Mohammad Hannan in the Liberation War category, Faruk Nawaz for children's literature, and Selim Morshed for fiction. However, their names have been removed from the final version, with no replacements due to academy policy.
Traditionally, the Bangla Academy Literary Awards are presented by the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela. This year, Chief Adviser of the interim government Muhammad Yunus is set to present the awards during the inauguration ceremony on Feb 1.
The revised list was officially declared by Bangla Academy's Director General Mohammad Azam via the academy's Facebook page. According to the post, the decision to exclude three names from the final list was in accordance with the institution's award policy.
The academy's rules state that no new nominees can be added once the initial list is suspended. The "Bangla Academy Literary Award Policy: states in Chapter 4, Section 9, that the Executive Council cannot introduce new names. Additionally, Section 10 reserves the council's right to reject any nomination."
The decision to revise the awards follows the academy's suspension of the original list on Saturday amid public controversy.
