Bhubaneswar, Dec. 14: The Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, conferred its fellowship on eminent litterateur Sitakant Mahapatra today. President of the Akademi Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari did the honours at the Idcol Auditorium in the city.

The Akademi has so far presented only 21 fellowships, said K. Sreenivasa Rao, secretary of the Akademi.

“I am thankful to the Sahitya Akademi for awarding me the fellowship,” said Mahapatra, who has earlier been awarded with the Padma Vibhushan, the Padma Bhushan, honorary doctorate degrees from three Indian universities and the highest honour of Soka University, Tokyo.

“I dedicate this fellowship to my twin kavya gurus, the Odia Bhagabatkar Jagannath Das and Bhima Bhoi, the tribal poet,” said Mahapatra.

Literary figures such as Ramakant Rath were present on the occasion. Mahapatra’s book Rotations of Unending Time, translated by Sura P. Rath and Mark Halperin was also released on the occasion. A discussion by writers Prafulla Kumar Mohanty, Basanta Kumar Panda, Aparna Mohanty and Gourahari Das was also conducted.