Veteran Odia writer Pratibha Ray was conferred the prestigious Jnanpith Award for the year 2011 for her life time research in literature. She is the fourth Odia to get the award after Sitakant Mohapatra.
The award carries a cash of Rs 7 lakh with citation. Dr Ray dedicated it to the Odia language. The President described her as a complete writer, who has written novels, short stories, children’s stories, autobiography, translations and a volume of lyrics.
Earlier, Dr Ray has been honoured with many awards including, ‘Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award’ for her novel ‘Sheelapadma’ (1985), ‘Sarala Award’ for ‘Yajnaseni’ (1990), ‘Moortidevi Award’ for ‘Yajnaseni’ (1991 ), ‘ Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award’ for her short-story collection ‘Ullaghna’ (2000), ‘Amrita Keerti Puraskar’ (2006 ) and ‘Padma Shri Award’ in literature and education in 2007.