TNI Bureau: Young Odia writer Sangram Keshari Senapati has been conferred the Timepass Prathama Award for his novel manuscript Cigarette. The award was presented at a literary programme organised by Timepass Publication on Sunday at the auditorium of the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre, Bhubaneswar.
A native of Nilok village under Bant block in Bhadrak district, Sangram is the son of Abhimanyu Senapati and Srimati Dei. The award was presented by renowned poet and fiction writer Dr. Hiranmayee Mishra.
Informing about the awards, Timepass director Saroj Bal said that while 12 writers received the Prathama Award in different categories this year, Sangram was the sole recipient in the novel category.
It may be noted that Sangram had earlier received the Udayaraga Samman in 2023 from Timepass in the short story category. He began writing fiction in 2015, and his stories have been published in several well-known newspapers and magazines. Since 2018, he has been regularly publishing the Odia e-magazine Shubhapallaba as its editor.
Sangram has also been an active contributor to Odia Wikipedia since 2014. He has written more than 3,000 Odia articles and has participated in various national and international Wikipedia-related programmes.
Sharing his thoughts on the award and his writing journey, Sangram said that his love for stories began in childhood and that he started writing stories on his personal blog in 2015. Some of his early works were published in his college magazine, where he later served as editor in his final year. “Cigarette is also a story from my college days. Some scattered memories from a college diary first took the shape of a short story and later evolved into a novel, which is now ready to reach readers,” he said. He expressed gratitude to Saroj Bal and the jury members for recognising his work, and to his wife, Chirashree Chinmayee, for helping him correct errors before submission.
According to Saroj Bal, the novel Cigarette will be published in April during the Bahi Barsha programme organised by Timepass Publication and will be available both online and at various outlets.
