Bengaluru: The Sahitya Academy has two new fellows in its hall of fame, currently populated with 21 of the very best in literature. Its a rare and distinguished honor for Kannada writer S L Bhyrappa and Telugu poet C Narayana Reddy, who have been elected by the Sahitya Academy as its fellows.

Prof Bhyrappa is widely regarded as one of India’s foremost modern-day writers.

He was a lecturer of philosophy at Sri Kaddasiddheswar College, Hubballi; Sardar Patel University, Gujarat; and the Regional College of Education, Mysore in Karnataka, from where he retired in 1991.

During his literary career of more than five decades, he has written 25 novels, an autobiography and five books on philosophy. Many of his works have been translated into other Indian languages and English.

He has been among the top-selling authors in Kannada language for the last 25 years, and his latest novel, Aavarana, was sold out even before its release, with ten reprints within five months of the release.

Many of his books were made into films, which also won wide critical acclaim.

He is the recipient of many awards, including the Sahitya Academy Award, the Kannada Sahitya Academy Award and Saraswati Samman.
 
Dr Reddy is a well-known Telugu poet and educational administrator. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in August 1997.

He has written many songs for Telugu films. His work Viswambara, which was translated into three languages, won him the Jnanpith Award in 1988. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Academy Award for Telugu in 1973.

The US Library of Congress has acquired 45 of his works. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1992. There have been 19 works on him, all acquired by the Library of Congress.