Jaipur, March 16 Jaipur District Collector Jitendra Kumar Soni's collection of short stories, "Bharkhama," will receive the Sahitya Akademi Award in the Rajasthani language category.
The Sahitya Akademi, an autonomous organization under the Union Ministry of Culture, announced awards for outstanding works in 24 recognized languages on Monday.
The prestigious literary award includes a citation and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
Soni is currently the District Magistrate of Jaipur. Besides writing short stories, he has also authored poetry and personal diaries in Rajasthani and Hindi, and has been involved in translation and editing. He has published around 15 books.
He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his Rajasthani poetry collection, "Rankhar."
Soni has also been honored with the Sudhindra Award by the Rajasthan Sahitya Akademi for his Hindi poetry collection, "Regmal," and the Murli Dhar Vyas 'Rajasthani' Katha Sahitya Award by the Rajasthani Bhasha Sahitya Evam Sanskriti Akademi for "Bharkhama."
A story from his short story collection, "Bharkhama," has also been adapted into a Rajasthani film with the same name.
The National Academy of Letters announced the names of 24 authors who will receive the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2025 on Monday.
This announcement comes months after the academy had cancelled a scheduled press conference in December 2025 to announce the awards.