Renowned novelist & poet Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih has been awarded the highly prestigious Shakti Bhatt Prize 2024 for his extensive literary work and contribution to Indian literature. The Meghalaya-born author belongs to the Khasi tribe and writes in both the Khasi and English language. His latest novel, The Distaste of the Earth, has also been longlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2024.
The Shakti Bhatt Prize carries an award sum of ₹2,00,000. The prize is privately funded, independent, and administered by a group of writers. This is the 15th year of the prize, which was started in memory of the late writer and editor Shakti Bhatt.
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih is not new to awards as he has previously won the Northeast Poetry Award (2004), the Veer Shankar Shah-Raghunath Shah National Award (2008), a Tagore Fellowship (2018), The Bangalore Review June Jazz Award (2021) and the Sparrow Literary Award (2022). He is also a faculty of literature at Northeastern Hill University, Shillong.
