Chennai: Noted Malayalam poet K Jayakumar will be honoured with the 34th Asan Prize for Poetry constituted by Asan Memorial Association. The office bearers of the association announced the award here on Friday.

The award carries a cash award of Rs 50,000, a citation and a specially crafted memento. 

Asan Prize for Poetry ( Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram) was instituted in 1984 to honour outstanding poets in Malayalam literature.

A jury headed by noted critic Dr KS Ravikumar selected poet K Jayakumar for the award. Dr CR Prasad and T Anithakumary are the other members of the jury.

The awardee K Jayakumar is also popular as a translator, lyricist and painter. He was the former Vice-Chancellor of Malayalam University. He has penned over 20 books including poetry collection, translation, biography and children’s literature.

‘Ardhavrithangal’ and ‘Rathriyude Sadhyathakal’ are his poetry works.He had translated Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’ and Khalil Gibran's ‘Pravachakan’.