page_title: Sugathakumari
section_title: Literary career
hierarchical_section_title: Sugathakumari / Literary career
caption_attribution_description: English: malayalam poet sugatha kumari giving her talk on the occasion of fokkana award distribution to ramesan blathur at thiruvananthapuram on 1994
context_page_description: Sugathakumari is an Indian poet and activist, who has been at the forefront of environmental and feminist movements in Kerala, South India. Her parents were the poet and freedom fighter Bodheswaran and V. K. Karthiyayini, a Sanskrit scholar. She is influenced by her poet father's social activism and nationalistic fervour.
  She is the founder secretary of the Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation for the protection of nature and of Abhaya, a home for destitute women and a day-care centre for the mentally ill. She was the former chairperson of the Kerala State Women's Commission. She played a big role in the Save Silent Valley protest.
  Sugathakumari has won numerous awards and recognitions including Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, Odakkuzhal Award, Vayalar Award, Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award, Asan Prize, Vallathol Award, Kerala Sahithya Akademi Fellowship, Ezhuthachan Puraskaram and Saraswati Samman. In 2006, she was honoured with Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian honour.
context_section_description: Sugathakumari's first poem which she published under a pseudonym in a weekly journal in 1957 attracted wide attention. In 1968, Sugathakumari won the Kerala Sahithya Akademi for her work Pathirappookal (Flowers of Midnight). Raathrimazha (Night Rain) won the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award in 1978. Her other collections include Paavam Manavahridayam, Muthuchippi, Irulchirakukal and Swapnabhoomi. Sugathakumari's earlier poetry mostly dealt with the tragic quest for love and is considered more lyrical compared to her later works in which the quiet, lyrical sensibility is replaced by increasingly feminist responses to social disorder and injustice. Environmental issues and other contemporary problems are also sharply portrayed in her poetry.
  Sugathakumari is perhaps the most sensitive and most philosophical of contemporary Malayalam poets. Her poetry has always drawn upon her sadness and unhappiness. "I have been inspired to write mostly through my emotional upheavals; few of my poems can be called joyous. But these days I feel I'm slowly walking away from it all, to a world that is futile or meaningless," says Sugathakumari. Sugathakumari's most famous works include Raathrimazha, Ambalamani(temple bell) and Manalezhuthu. Sugathakumari has also made contribution to the field of children's literature. In 2008, she received an Award for Lifetime Contribution to Children's Literature, instituted by the State Institute of Children's Literature. She also has several translated works to her credit.
  She has won numerous other awards for her literary works, including the prestigious Vayalar Award and Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour by Government of Kerala. In 2004, she was given the Kerala Sahithya Akademi Fellowship. She won the prestigious Saraswati Samman in 2012, being only the third Malayalam writer to do so. She also won "Pandit Karuppan Award.  She was the principal of Kerala State Jawahar Balabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. She is the founder chief editor of Thaliru, a children's magazine published by Kerala State Institute of Children's Literature.
caption: Sugathakumari during the Fokkana Award distribution ceremony, Thiruvananthapuram (1994)
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