Itanagar, June 15: Arunachal Pradesh writer Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi has been unanimously selected to receive the prestigious fifth Bhupen Hazarika National Award, which will be conferred on him in Srinagar in September.

The award is instituted by Sarhad, a socio-cultural and educational organisation dedicated to the cause of violence-affected children, youth, women and people of Kashmir for the past 26 years.

Born on June 13, 1952, to late Tashi Phuntsu and late Rinchin Chojom at Jigaon in present West Kameng district, Thongchi completed his graduation from Cotton College and masters from Gauhati University.

Although his mother tongue is Sherdukpen, a language spoken by hardly 6,000 people, he started writing in Assamese because it was then the medium of instruction in schools in the North-East Frontier Agency, as the state was earlier known.

His first poem, Jonbaai (The Moon), appeared in an Assamese children's magazine in 1967. He later tried his hand at various genres, including plays, short stories and novels. His most important novel is Mouna Ounth Mukhar Hriday (Silent Lips and Murmuring Hearts) for which he won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005.

Arunachal chief minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Sarbananda Sonowal have congratulated Thongchi on his achievement.