Awards go to 10

Bangla Academy yesterday announced its literary award for 2011 in nine fields of literature.
Dr Shamsuzzaman Khan, director general of the academy, named the 10 winners of Bangla Academy Sahitya Award 2011 at its premises.
The awardees are Ashim Shaha and Kamal Chowdhury for poetry, Anisul Hoque for literature (Katha Sahitya), Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed for essay, Prof Biswajit Ghosh for research, Prof Khaliquzzaman Ilias for translation, Belal Mohammad for literature on liberation war affairs, Dr Baren Chakrabarti for travel story, Dr Ali Ajgar for science, technology and environment and Akhter Hossain for child literature.
The academy, however, could not consider anyone in the drama category.
Each of the winners will receive a cash award of Tk 1 lakh, a certificate and a crest at a ceremony on February 24.
In his reaction on winning the award, famed novelist Anisul Hoque said, “I am happy to win the prize alongside Abdullah Abu Sayeed and my teacher Ali Ajgar. This will of course inspire me to do even better in future.”
“Achieving an award is always a great feeling. It will certainly make me more responsible to my work. I will try to preserve the dignity of this award,” awardee Biswajit Ghosh, a teacher at Department of Bengali of Dhaka University, told The Daily Star.
THE FAIR
A total of 136 new books were published yesterday as the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela witnessed a fewer visitors than Friday.
The fair remained open from 11:00am to 9:00pm. A lot of students in uniform drew the attention of the visitors.
About 200 students of Shamoly Medical Assistant Training School visited the book fair, said a student Jewel Islam Jony.
Around the same number of students came from Trauma Institute of Medical Technology and Trauma Medical Assistant Training School, he added.
Bibliophiles, however, had to suffer due to dust at the fair premises.
A discussion was held in the evening followed by a cultural function.