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.
WP. Sachidanandan, who uses the pseudonym Anand, is an Indian writer, writing primarily in Malayalam. He is one of the known living intellectuals in India. His works are noted for their philosophical flavor, historical context and their humanism. He is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and three Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards. He is also a recipient of Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Vayalar Award, Odakkuzhal Award, Muttathu Varkey Award, Vallathol Award and Yashpal Award. He did not accept the Yashpal Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel.
WLalithambika Antharjanam was an Indian author and social reformer best known for her literary works in Malayalam language. She was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and social reform movements among the Nambuthiri caste led by V. T. Bhattathiripaatu and her writing reflects a sensitivity to the women's role in society, in the family and as an individual. Her published oeuvre consists of nine volumes of short stories, six collections of poems, two books for children, and a novel, Agnisakshi (1976) which won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977. Her autobiography Aathmakadhakkoru Aamukham is also considered a significant work in Malayalam literature.
WKarthikayil Padmanabhan Appan, better known as K. P. Appan, was a renowned literary critic in Malayalam. Born in Alappuzha (Alleppey), Kerala, Appan worked as a Professor of Malayalam literature at SN College, Kollam, Kerala.
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.
WSubhash Chandran is a Malayalam novelist, short story writer and journalist best known for the 2010 novel Manushyanu Oru Aamukham. He is one of the most read young writers in contemporary Malayalam literature. His stories "Vadhakramam", "Sanmargam", "Parudeesa Nashtam" and "Guptham" have been adapted into films. He is the only writer to get Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for both his debut story collection (2001) and debut novel (2011). He is also a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award, Odakkuzhal Award and Vayalar Award.
WCherukad Govinda Pisharodi, commonly known as Cherukad, was a Malayalam-language playwright, novelist, poet and political activist, associated with the Communist movement in Kerala state, India.
WSunil P. Elayidom is an Indian writer, critic, orator and university professor in Malayalam language. He writes and lectures on politics, literature, art and culture. He is a two-time recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
WSarah Joseph is an Indian novelist and short story writer in Malayalam. She won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal. She also received the Vayalar Award for the same novel. Sarah has been at the forefront of the feminist movement in Kerala and is the founder of Manushi. She and Madhavikutty are considered among the leading women writers in Malayalam. She joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and contested the 2014 parliament elections from Thrissur.
WGeorge Varghese Kakkanadan, commonly known as Kakkanadan, was an Indian short story writer and novelist in the Malayalam language. His works made break from the neo-realism that dominated Malayalam literature through the 1950s and 1960s. He is often credited with laying the foundation of modernism in Malayalam literature. He is a recipient of Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards in addition to numerous other awards and recognitions.
WP. Kesava Pillai, better known by his pen-name P. Kesavadev, was a novelist and social reformer of Kerala, India. He is remembered for his speeches, autobiographies, novels, dramas, short stories, and films. Odayil Ninnu, Nadhi, Bhrandalayam, Ayalkar, Ethirppu (autobiography) and Oru Sundariyude Athmakadha are some among his 128 literary works. Kesavadev along with Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer are considered the exponents of progressive Malayalam Literature.
WU. A. Khader is an Indian author. He has published in Malayalam, including novels, novellas, short stories, travelogues and non-fiction. His works have been translated to various languages including English, Hindi and Kannada.
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.
WPunathil Kunjabdulla was an Indian writer from Kerala. A medical doctor by profession, Kunjabdulla was a practitioner of the avant-garde in Malayalam literature. His work includes more than 45 books, including 7 novels, 15 short story collections, memoirs, an autobiography and travelogues. His work Smarakasilakal won the Central and State Akademi Awards.
WG. Sankara Kurup, better known as Mahakavi G, was an Indian poet, essayist and literary critic of Malayalam literature. Known as one of the greats of Malayalam poetry, he was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award―the highest Indian literary honor. He served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from 1968 to 1972 and received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1967. He was also a recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award and Soviet Land Nehru Award.
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.
WKarikkatt Marathu Kuttikrishna Marar was an Indian essayist and literary critic of Malayalam literature. He was known for Bharathaparyadanam, a critical study of the Mahabharata, which is counted by many among the most influential books in Malayalam and was a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
WVyloppilli Sreedhara Menon was an Indian poet of Malayalam literature. Known for his works such as Kudiyozhikkal, Kannikkoythu and Mambazham, Menon was the founder president of the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham, an organization of Kerala-based artists, writers and art and literature enthusiasts. He was a recipient of several honors including Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry, Vayalar Award and Odakkuzhal Award.
WManiyambath Mukundan, commonly known as M. Mukundan, is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Many of his early works are set in Mayyazhi which has earned him the moniker, Mayyazhiyude Kathakaaran. He is known to be one of the pioneers of modernity in Malayalam literature and Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil, Daivathinte Vikrithikal, Kesavante Vilapangal and Pravasam are some of his notable works. He has received many honours including Vayalar Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. Crossword Book Award and the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literacy honour of the Government of Kerala. He is also a recipient of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the Government of France.
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.
WPanayanthitta Kunhiraman Nair, also known as Mahakavi P, was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. He was known for his romantic poems which detailed the natural beauty of his home state of Kerala in southern India as well as the realities of his life and times. He received the inaugural Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry in 1959. He was also a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.
WOlappamanna Mana Subramanian Namboothirippad (1923-2000), better identified by his family name, Olappamanna , was an Indian poet of Malayalam literature. A former chairman of Kerala Kalamandalam and an author of 20 books of poetry, his poems were noted for their explicit social expressions. He received two awards from Kerala Sahitya Akademi and another from Kendra Sahitya Akademi, besides honours such as Government of Madras Poetry Prize, Odakkuzhal Award, N. V. Puraskaram, Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram and Ulloor Award.
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.
WDr. K. Ayyappa Paniker, sometimes spelt "Ayyappa Panicker", was an influential Malayalam poet, literary critic, and an academic and a scholar in modern and post-modern literary theories as well as ancient Indian aesthetics and literary traditions. He was one of the pioneers of modernism in Malayalam poetry, where his seminal works like Kurukshethram (1960), considered a turning point in Malayalam poetry, Ayyappapanikkarude Krithikal and Chintha and several essays were an important influence on the playwrights of his generation.
WK. G. Sankara Pillai is an Indian poet. He came into prominence in the 1970s with the publication of the poem "Bengal" and is now one of the most popular among the modernist poets of Kerala. A recipient of the state and central Sahitya Akademi Awards in 1998 and 2002 respectively, his writings in Malayalam have been translated into many Indian languages, as well as Chinese, French, German, English and Sinhala.
WN. Krishna Pillai was an Indian dramatist, literary critic, translator and historian of Malayalam language. Known for his realism and dramatic portrayal of psycho-social tensions, Pillai's plays earned him the moniker, Kerala Ibsen. He was a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama, Odakkuzhal Award, Vayalar Award and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award, besides other honours. The Kerala Sahitya Akademi inducted him as a distinguished fellow in 1979.
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.
WSankaran Kutty Kunjiraman Pottekkatt, popularly known as S. K. Pottekkatt, was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature and a politician from Kerala, India. He was also a great traveller among the Keralites, who wrote many travelogues for the people who have been unintroduced to the outside world. He was the author of nearly sixty books which include ten novels, twenty-four collections of short stories, three anthologies of poems, eighteen travelogues, four plays, a collection of essays and a couple of books based on personal reminiscences. he was a recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, Sahitya Akademi Award and the Jnanpith Award. His works have been translated into English, Italian, Russian, German and Czech, besides all major Indian languages.
WC. Radhakrishnan is a writer and film director in Malayalam language from Kerala, India.
WR. Ramachandran (1923–2005) was a Malayalam–language poet from Kerala state, South India.
WK. P. Ramanunni (Malayalam:കെ.പി.രാമനുണ്ണി) is a novelist and short-story writer from Kerala, India. His first novel Sufi Paranja Katha won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1995 and the novel Daivathinte Pusthakam won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2017. Jeevithathinte Pusthakam won the 2011 Vayalar Award.
WK. Sachidanandan (1948) is a noted Indian poet and critic, writing in Malayalam and English. A pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual literary critic, playwright, editor, columnist and translator, he is the former Editor of Indian Literature journal and the former Secretary of Sahitya Akademi. He is also social advocate for secular anti-caste views, supporting causes like environment, human rights and free software and is a well known speaker on issues concerning contemporary Indian literature. He is the festival director of Kerala Literature Festival.
WP. V. Shajikumar is a Malayalam author, screenplay writer and software engineer. He is the recipient of numerous awards including Kendra Sahitya Akademi's Yuva Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi's Geeta Hiranyan Award.
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.
WM. Sukumaran (1943–2018) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature, best known for his novels and short stories with political undertones. Marichittillathavarude Smarakangal, Seshakriya, Chuvanna Chihnangal and Janithakam feature among his works and five of his stories have been adapted into films. A two time recipient of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Story, Sukumaran received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story in 1976 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006.
WParutholli Chalappurathu Kuttikrishnan, popularly known by his pen name Uroob was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Along with Basheer, Thakazhi, Kesavadev, and Pottekkatt, Uroob was counted among the progressive writers in Malayalam during the twentieth century. He was known for his novels such as Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum and Ummachu, short stories like Rachiyamma and the screenplays of a number of Malayalam films including Neelakuyil, the first Malayalam feature film to receive the National Film Award. He was a recipient of several honours including Kendra Sahithya Academy Award and the inaugural Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel.
WVadakkke Koottala Narayanankutty Nair, commonly known as V.K.N., was a prominent Malayalam writer, noted mainly for his highbrow satire. He wrote novels, short stories and political commentaries. His works are noted for their multi-layered humour, trenchant criticism of the socio-political classes and ability to twist the meanings of words contextually and lend a touch of magic to his language.
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.
WPrabha Varma is a poet, lyricist, journalist and television presenter.
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.
WPaul Zacharia, popularly known mononymously as Zacharia, is an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for his body of literary works composed of short stories, novellas, travelogues, screenplays, essays, columns and children's books, Zacharia is a distinguished fellow of Kerala Sahitya Akademi. He is also a recipient of the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story.