Thiruvananthapuram: Poet Prabha Varma received the Kunchan Nambiar Award instituted by Kunchan Nambiar Memorial Committee from former chief secretary K Jayakumar.

While handing over the award, Jayakumar said that Prabha Varma’s poems are a combination of poetic heritage and modernism. Excellent poets are born when they respond to social inequalities and abuse of power through writing. Prabha Varma is one among them, he opined.

Lekha Kakkanad and Sunil Jose won the awards in young poet category and Sunil Datt and Biju Narayanan in young story writer category. K M Hajira, Vasu Arekode and Biju Narayanan won the awards in children’s writing category. A J Archa won the award for child author.

Dr Indrababu presided over the function. ADGP B Sandhya delivered commemorative speech. Kunchan Nambiar Memorial Committee secretary Pazhuvadi Ramachandran and jury chairman Unni Ammayambalam also addressed the gathering.