Orissa Sahitya Akademi, an epitome of cooperation between the authors and administration in the cause of Oriya culture, born on September 25, 1957, while celebrating its golden jubilee in 2007-08, has a plan to bring out 50 new titles to present to the world of letters a representative set of post-independence works in Oriya including Oriya works translated into English as well as sister languages of India.
Within the year of celebrations, it has plans to concentrate on children literature and to encourage young writers in defining their creativity. Its emphasis will be on writers lying undiscovered in the rural horizon.
It will also bring out an authentic history of Oriya literature and biographies of epoch making writers of Orissa.
Organization of interaction between authors of Orissa and authors outside Orissa constitutes a part of its programme even as interaction between the common people and writers of Orissa through celebration of the golden jubilee in all the districts of the State is drawn up as a major area of thrust in order to ensure next generation literature to grow on the grassroots.
Setting on motion the celebration year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik hinted on 25 Sept.2007, also at scholarships to be paid to distinguished researchers to bring into light unknown and less known aspects of Orissas lingua-cultural heritage.
For records shake, the lunching of the golden jubilee at 5.30 in the evening of 25 Sept. 2007 at Bhanja Kalamandap of Bhubaneswar was performed by the CM with Akademi President Prof. Deepak Mishra in the Chair. M/s Prafulla C.Ghadei (Minister, Finance), S.N.Patro (Minister, Culture), A.K. Tripathy (Chief Secretary) and Gopinath Mohanty (Secretary, Culture) were guests of honor when Secretary of the Akademi, Dr. Hara Pr. Parichha Pattnaik introducing the programme said, reverence to betters and seniors and affectionate encouragement to budding writers would be the norm of the Akademi in entering into the new era.
On this occasion, noted scholar and writer Manoj Das addressing as the Chief Guest said, in the ages of yore, there was no literature; but there was speculation. Speculation in course of time metamorphosed into literature. So literature is an abridgement of reality and feeling. Success of authors lies in this art of abridgement, in which regard, Orissas literary heritage is abundantly rich.(scp)