Lokesh Raghuraman wins Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for debut work

Lokesh Raghuraman wins Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for debut Tamil short story collection, promoting inclusivity and compassion.

Lokesh Raghuraman from Tamil Nadu has won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar award for his debut Tamil short story collection Vishnu Vandhar. 

Every year, the Yuva Puraskar is awarded to young writers for their exceptional works in 24 languages. Mr. Raghuraman is one among seven authors of short story collections who have received the award in 2024.

The recognition came as a pleasant surprise to Mr. Raghuraman. “It was unexpected because I’m not part of any prominent literary or writers’ circle. It’s very easy to brush aside a work from such a writer, but I’m glad that didn’t happen and the merit in my work was recognised,” he told The Hindu.

A native of Tiruvarur district, the 34-year-old author now works as a software engineer in Bengaluru. He dabbled in writing during college but only pursued it seriously after graduating.

Vishnu Vandhar (Salt Publications) was released on January 1, 2023. The ten slice-of-life short stories in the collection are set in different contexts — from an agraharam in Vishnupuram to the Kalrayan Hills in the Eastern Ghats — but have nature as a common theme. In all of them, an aspect of nature – forests, seas, or plants – is used as a metaphor to drive home the message of inclusivity and compassion towards non-human beings.

“If someone were to cut a tree, stories such as these say you and the tree are equal, and [the hope is for] the person raising the axe to hesitate before cutting it down,” he says. Mr. Raghuraman’s second book, Aroma, was recently published by Naran of Salt Publications.