Bengaluru: Writer Kayappanda Shanthi K. Appanna from Kodagu has been chosen for the Yuva Puraskar of the Kendra Sahitya Akademi for 2017.

Shanthi Appanna has been chosen for the award for ‘Manasu Abhisarike’. The collection of stories has earlier won Chanda Book Award and Kodagina Gowramma Award. ‘Baahugalu’, one of the short stories from the book, had won her the first award.

She hails from Badagarakeri village in Virajpet taluk, and works as a nurse at the Railway Hospital in Chennai. She is settled in Chennai along with her husband Balachandra since the last 10 years. ‘Manasu Abhisarike’ is her first book.

Speaking to Star of Mysore from Chennai this morning, Shanthi said that she was overjoyed after the announcement of the award. “This is my first book and the award has increased my responsibility. Coming from a remote village in Kodagu, this award means a lot to me and I will pursue my passion by coming up with more books,” she said.

Shanthi, in her collection, fluctuates between two viewpoints – a startlingly modern and the well-known conservative. There are 14 stories in the collection and some stories deftly merge the two viewpoints. She touches the worlds of the rural, the urban, the activist, the subaltern, oppressor and oppressed and also man-woman relationships.