Sixteen personalities have been named as winners of the Bangla Academy Sahitya Puroshkar (literary award) 2023.

British-Bangladeshi storyteller Shamim Azad won the award for her contribution to poetry, said a press release today.

Novelists Nuruddin Jahangir and Salma Bani shared the award for best fiction writers while Mrittika Chakma and Masud Pathik were recognised for their prowess as playwrights.

Tapankar Chakrabarty was awarded in the genre of children's literature, and ornithologist Inam Al Haque was recognised in the environment/science category.

Tapan Bagchi won the academy's premier award for his contribution to folklore.

Afroza Parvin and Asaduzzaman Asad were recognised for writing on the Liberation War, and Saifullah Mahmud Dulal and Md Mojibur Rahman got awarded for writing on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Ishak Khan was recognised in the biography category.

Bangla Academy Sahitya Puroshkar was introduced in 1960 with six categories: poetry, novels, short stories, essays, juvenile literature, and translation. Two more awards were introduced in 1985 to recognise the overall contributions to the Bangla language and literature.