(From top) Pratibha Satpathy, Sitakanta Mahapatra and Vikram Sampath. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 23: Sahitya Akademi, the apex body for literature in the country, is all set to organise a three-day literary festival here.

Close to 100 authors, poets and veteran littérateurs are taking part in this festival that will start from tomorrow and hold the annual award ceremonies for translated works and Yuva Puraskar for young writers in more than 20 languages.

Sangram Jena has been chosen for the translation award in Odia while Anju Makhija and Hari Dilgir will receive the award for their English translations. The other 21 translators will be awarded for their works.

Sahitya Akademi will give away the Yuva Puraskar awards for the first time for young writers. The winner of the young writers’ award from Odisha is Gayatribala Panda, for her book Gaan, a collection of poems.

“I believe it is not just an award for me but for Odia language itself,” Gayatribala said. The Yuva Puraskar award for English will be presented to Vikram Sampath, an MBA graduate who wrote two books on music recently – Voice of the Veena S Balachander and My Name Is Gauhar Jaan.

A daylong poetry-reading programme, Abhivyakti, will be conducted on Sunday. The events will be moderated by Agrahara Krishna Murthy, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, the secretary, president and vice-president of the Akademi respectively; eminent authors Jayant Mahapatra, Ramakanta Rath, Sitakanta Mahapatra, Bibhuti Patnaik, J.P. Das, Pratibha Satpathy and many more.

The award functions will be held at Jayadev Bhavan on Friday and Saturday while the literary meet and poetry recital will be hosted at a hotel in Jayadev Vihar from August 24 to 26. A book exhibition will also be held on all the three days.