The Gangadhar National Award, the most prestigious honour of the Sambalpur University for poetry, will be conferred on Saubhagya Mishra for the year 2013.
The award will be presented to Dr Mishra on January 3 next on the occasion of the 48th foundation day of the university. The award was instituted by the university in the year 1989, and 22 eminent poets from all over the country including four from Odisha have got it so far. The award carries a cash prize of Rs50,000 and a citation.
Dr Mishra was born in Brahmapur in the year 1941. He was the Professor of English at the Berhampur University for a long time. He has got a tremendous mastery over English language and literature. For his literary creations, he got the Kendriya Sahitya Academy award in 1986. Dr Mishra is the fifth poet from Odisha to get the Gangadhar National Award, instituted after the legendary poet Gangadhar Meher who belonged to western Odisha. While Urdu poet Sardar Ali Jafri was the first recipient of this award in 1991, Jayant Mahapatra was the first Odia to get it in 1994.