Ashoka Mitran

Background

He moved to Chennai in 1952 after the death of his father.

Career

He began his literary career with the prize winning play "Anbin Parisu", followed by many short stories, novellas and novels. A distinguished essayist and critic, he is the editor of the literary journal "Kanaiyaazhi". He has written over 200 short stories, eight novels, some 15 novellas besides other prose writings.

Born in Secunderabad, Ashokamitran spent the first twenty years of his life here.

His real name was Thyagarajan. He worked for more than a decade at the Gemini Studios.

His experiences here and his interaction with people from the Tamil filmdom later took the form of his book "". lieutenant was from 1966 that he became a full-time writer and he took up the pseudonym of "Ashokamitran".

In 1973 he was invited and tookpart in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, United States of America. Some of his works were translated into other European languages and most Indian languages as well.

Honours &.

Achievements

• Ashokamitran was given many awards and honours. Some of them are He was given the Government of Tamil Nadu award thrice and the "Illakiya Chinthani" award twice in 1977 and 1984. He was honoured with the K.K. Birla Fellowship to do a study in comparative Indian literature and the University of Iowa Creative Writing Fellowship in 1973-1974. He was conferred the Lily Memorial Award in 1992 In 1993, he was awarded the Ramkrishna Jaidayal Harmony Award by Dalmia trust for promoting religious harmony. Akshara award in 1996. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1996 for his work "Appavin Snegidhar", a collection of short stories. In January 2007, he received the Magister award In May 2012, NTR National Literary Award by NTR Vignan Trust. On February 10, 2013, he got the inaugural Kaa Na Su award at a function in Chennai. On March 30, 2013, he received the national award instituted by the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad at Kolkata.