WAkkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, popularly known as Akkitham, was an Indian poet and essayist who wrote in Malayalam. He was known for a simple and lucid style of writing, exploring themes of profound love and compassion in his works. Some of his prominent works included Irupatham Noottandinte Ithihasam, Balidarshanam , and Nimisha Kshetram .
WNalapat Balamani Amma was an Indian poet who wrote in Malayalam. She was a prolific writer and was known as the "poetess of motherhood". Amma (Mother), Muthassi (Grandmother), and Mazhuvinte Katha were some of her well-known works. She was a recipient of many awards and honours, including the Padma Bhushan, Saraswati Samman, Sahitya Akademi Award, and Ezhuthachan Award. She was the mother of the renowned writer Kamala Surayya.
WMahakavi "M. P." Appan (1913–2003) was a poet and littérateur of Malayalam. He was born on 1913 near Jagathi of Trivandrum district. His parents were Madu and Kochappi. His original name was Ponnappan. He began his career as a school teacher after completing BA honours from the Kerala University College, Trivandrum. He had his imprint in the literary field for over 70 years. He was also a member of the Kerala Sahitya Academy from 1957 to 1967.
WKoloth Thattarath Sukumaran, popularly known as Sukumar Azhikode was an Indian academic, orator, critic and writer of Malayalam literature, known for his contributions to Malayalam language and insights on Indian philosophy. He was a scholar in Sanskrit, Malayalam, and English languages and his work, Tatvamasi, published in 1984, is a notable work for its detailed interpretation of Indian philosophy, Vedas and Upanishads. He was a recipient of several honours including Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahithya Akademi Award, Vayalar Award, Vallathol Award and Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary award of the Government of Kerala. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2007, which he refused citing the award was a discrimination.
WKandanisseri Vattamparambil Velappan Ayyappan or V. V. Ayyappan, better known by his nom de plume Kovilan, was an Indian Malayalam language novelist and freedom fighter from Kerala. He is considered as one of the most prolific writers of contemporary Indian literature. In all, he had authored 11 novels, 10 collections of short stories, three essays and a play. Though the settings of his stories varied from military camps in frozen Himalayas to obscure village in Thrissur, he brought to bear a universal dimension on them transcending the limitations of space and time. Though initially he was branded as a writer of military stories, Kovilan soon proved that he looked at life with its varied dimensions. His works like Thottangal, A Minus B and Ezhamedangal reflected the existential dilemmas of human beings instead of depicting mere external situations and realities in a linear mode. But Kovilan received the highest critical appreciation for his later work Thattakam, a powerful and poignant portrayal of generations of people in his ancestral hamlet.
WOttaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup was a Malayalam poet and lyricist from Kerala, India, who won the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary award in India for the year 2007. He received the awards Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011, the fourth and second highest civilian honours from the Government of India. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Kerala, Trivandrum. O. N. V. was known for his leftist leaning. He was a leader of All India Students Federation (AISF). He died on 13 February 2016 at KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram due to age-related illnesses, aged 84.
WMundanat Leelavathy is a Malayalam writer, literary critic, and educationist. She taught at various colleges in Kerala before retiring as Principal from Government Brennen College, Thalassery. During her long literary career, she won several awards including Kendra Sahithya Academy Award, and Kerala Sahithya Academy Award. She is a contemporary of such noted critics in Malayalam including K. M. George, S. Guptan Nair, N. Krishna Pillai, P. K. Balakrishnan, M.K. Sanu, and Sukumar Azhikode. Leelavathy is a recipient of the Padma Shri Award.
WMadath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-Independence Indian literature. He was born in Kudallur, a small village in the present day Anakkara panchayath in Pattambi Taluk, Palakkad district (Palghat), which was under the Malabar District in the Madras Presidency of the British Raj. He shot into fame at the age of 20 when, as a chemistry undergraduate, he won the prize for the best short story in Malayalam at World Short Story Competition conducted by The New York Herald Tribune. His debut novel Naalukettu, wrote at the age of 23, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. His other novels include Manju (Mist), Kaalam (Time), Asuravithu and Randamoozham. The deep emotional experiences of his early days have gone into the making of MT's novels. Most of his works are oriented towards the basic Malayalam family structure and culture and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature. His three seminal novels on life in the matriarchal family in Kerala are Naalukettu, Asuravithu, and Kaalam. Randamoozham, which retells the story of the Mahabharatha from the point of view of Bhimasena, is widely credited as his masterpiece.
WThinakkal Padmanabhan, popularly known as T. Padmanabhan, is an Indian short story writer of Malayalam literature. He is a recipient of several awards including the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary award of the Government of Kerala. He declined some of the earlier awards he was selected for which include Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (1973), Odakkuzhal Award (1995) and Sahitya Akademi Award (1996). Mahatma Gandhi University conferred on him the honoris causa degree of the Doctor of Letters in 2018.
WSooranad P. N. Kunjan Pillai was an Indian historian, researcher, lexicographer, poet, essayist, literary critic, orator, grammarian, educationist, and scholar of the Malayalam language, best remembered for his contributions in compiling Malayala Maha Nighantu, a lexicon. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padmashri in 1984 for his contribution to Malayalam literature and education. He was also a recipient of the Vallathol Award in 1992 and when the Government of Kerala instituted the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, their highest literary honour in 1993, he received the inaugural award.
WThakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, popularly known as Thakazhi after his place of birth, was an Indian novelist and short story writer of Malayalam literature. He wrote over 30 novels and novellas and over 600 short stories focusing on the lives of the oppressed classes. Known for his works such as Kayar and Chemmeen, Pillai was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award. He was also a recipient of the Jnanpith, India's highest literary award, awarded in 1984 for the novel Kayar.
WSugathakumari is an Indian poet and activist, who has been at the forefront of environmental and feminist movements in Kerala, South India. Her parents were the poet and freedom fighter Bodheswaran and V. K. Karthiyayini, a Sanskrit scholar. She is influenced by her poet father's social activism and nationalistic fervour.
WKamala Surayya , popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian poet in English as well as an author in Malayalam from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics among others.
WAttoor Ravi Varma was an Indian poet and translator of Malayalam literature. One of the pioneers of modern Malayalam poetry, Ravi Varma is a recipient of Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation, besides many other honours. The Government of Kerala honoured him with their highest literary award, the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, in 2012 and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi inducted him as their distinguished fellow in 2017.
WOttupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan, commonly known as O. V. Vijayan, was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (1969), Vijayan was the author of six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.