Three writers receive Bangla Academy awards

Three renowned writers were awarded Bangla Academy Sahitya Purashkar 2008 at a ceremony on the Bangla Academy premises, the venue of Amar Ekushey Book Fair, in the city yesterday.
The winners are poet Mahbub Sadik (poetry), Prof Karunamoy Goshawami (prose and research) and Helena Khan (child literature).
National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, newly appointed chairman of The Bangla Academy, gave away the awards to the winners at a brief ceremony at the Mela Mancha. Each award carries Tk 1 lakh, a crest and a citation.
Meanwhile, the number of visitors at the book fair was small yesterday, the 26th day of the fair, as the nation was worried about the mutiny by BDR jawans. Over one hundred bookstalls have been closed until the evening.
A total of ten books were unveiled at the book fair yesterday.
Besides, a total of 90 new titles arrived at the fair yesterday. The books included 'Baishwik Pujibader Sampratik Sankat' by MM Akash, Anu Muhammad and Faruk Chowdhurty; 'Face Book' by Mahbub Hasan; 'Radharamaner Gan' by Tapan Bagchi; 'Khandaker Juddho O Onnanya' by Salma Chowdhury; 'Brikkha O Balikar Galpo' by Dwijen Sharma, 'Anatikranta Brittaya' by Sirajul Islam Chowdhury; 'Nemesis' by Nurul Momen; and 'Muhammad Shafi: Jiban Karma O Sahittya Abodan' by Bishwajit Ghosh.
The book fair will remain open from 11:00am to 3:00pm only for children today and adults would be allowed to enter after 3:00pm.
There was a proposal from the publishers that the time of the fair be extended up to March 7, but the authorities ruled out the possibility of time extension.