West Bengal-based writer Abhisek Sarkar and Bangladeshi poet Rofiquzzaman Rony have won the Gemcon Young Literature Award and Gemcon Poetry Award respectively for their manuscripts "Nishiddho" and "Dhoashar Tamate Rong".
Both of them received a crest and Tk 100,000 as prize.
The prizes were handed over to them on the first day of the Dhaka Literary Festival 2019 at Bangla Academy's Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad auditorium on Thursday (Nov 7).
In an immediate reaction, Rofiquzzaman said: “I am delighted, grateful, and overwhelmed.”
Abhisek, a 33-year-old author, said that the hollowness of current time made him write the short stories compiled in “Nishiddho.”
“We see the most visible form of censorship when it comes from the state or any terror group. But there is some censorship too that we get indoctrinated to since childhood.
“This internalized censorship is one of the themes of my manuscript,” he added.
Kazi Anis Ahmed, director of Gemcon Group, said the manuscripts they received from the nominees had gone through a blind assessment by the jury members.
"The juries did not get to know the name of the authors and poets while judging," he said.
Journalist and poet Sajjad Sharif, one of the jurists of Gemcon Young Poetry Award, said they were looking for potentiality while going through the manuscripts.
Writer Papree Rahman, another jurist, said Abhisek was a unique example of his time.
"His work speaks for free-thinkers who have been subjected to violence. Also, literally figures like Homer and Tagore have a place in his work," she said.