Muttathu Varkey Award for contributions to the field of Malayalam literature is instituted by the Muttattu Varkey Foundation in memory of novelist Muttathu Varkey. The award was instituted in 1992 and as of 2012, it carries a purse of 50000, a citation, and a statuette. The awards are usually announced on 28 April (the birth anniversary of Varkey) and presented on 28 May (the death anniversary of Varkey) every year.
The award was instituted as a recognition of the writer's (particularly novelists) body of work rather than any one title. In 2015, K. Satchidanandan became the first poet to be selected for the award. The year 2015 was the 75th anniversary of Muttathu Varkey's debut into Malayalam literature with a poem titled ‘‘Aathmanjali’’ and so it was decided to have the award be given to poetry. In 2016 and 2017, the award was given for screenplay writing and notably in recognition for a particular work unlike previous years.
Awardees Year Recipient Remarks 1992O. V. Vijayan Khasakinte ethihasam1993Vaikom Muhammad Basheer 1994M. T. Vasudevan Nair 1995Kovilan 1996Kakkanadan 1997V. K. N. 1998M. Mukundan 1999Punathil Kunjabdulla 2000Anand 2001N. P. Mohammed 2002Ponkunnam Varkey 2003Sethu 2004C. Radhakrishnan 2005Zacharia 2006Kamala Surayya (Madhavikkutty) 2007T. Padmanabhan 2008M. Sukumaran 2009N. S. Madhavan 2010P. Valsala 2011Sarah Joseph Paapathara2012N. Prabhakaran For Overall contribution 2013C. V. Balakrishnan 2014Asokan Charuvil 2015K. Satchidanandan"Malayalam"(Poem) 2016K. G. George Work: Irakal 2017T. V. Chandran Work: Ponthan Mada 2018K. R. Meera Work: Aarachar 2019Benyamin
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