Literary magazine to honour 2 writers for portraying marginalised lives

Coimbatore: Literary magazine Manalveedu will honour two Tamil writers, who have documented the lives of peasants and people from the minority communities in their works.

CM Muthu of Papanasam in Thanjavur and Keeranur Jakir Raja of Karur will be honoured at the ‘People’s Arts and Literary Festival’ to be organised by the publisher of the magazine, Kalari Heritage and Charitable Trust, on January 5 at Ervadi, Mettur in Salem.

Both the writers had portrayed lives hitherto unheard of in Tamil letters, editor of Manalveedu and organiser of Kalari Heritage and Charitable Trust M Harikrishnan said. “Muthu, a farmer, has written about the lives of Thanjavur peasants with a deep psychological acuity. His novels and short fiction portrayed farmers’ lives and dilemmas with an original rural flavour. He is a free spirit and defies any labels. He will be conferred with the Rajam Krishnan Memorial Award for literature.”

Raja, in his fictional works, has given honest depictions of the the social structure within the Islamic communities. “His stories speak of the oppression, rejection and class differences within the Islamic society. He will be honoured with the Ku Alagirisamy Memorial Award for short fiction,” Harikrishnan told TOI.

Watercolour artist Rajkumar Stapathi will be honoured with the Artist K M Gopal Memorial Award.

The trust has been documenting the folk art forms of Kongu region such as koothu, puppetry and shadow puppetry. It has been conducting the festival for the last 12 years and honouring writers with awards for the last three years. It had previously honoured writer Shoba Sakthi and translator MA Suseela.


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