Kolakaluri Enoch
Award Name : Padma Shri
Year of Award : 2014
Award for : Literature
Location : Guntūr, Andhra Pradesh, India
Kolakaluri Enoch is an Indian writer, teacher, and former Vice Chancellor of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the field of literature. He was born on 1 July 1939 in Vejandla, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Kolakaluri Enoch started his career by joining Andhra University as a faculty member. He had a notable career which took him to the post of the Vice Chancellor of the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, the institution from where he secured his doctoral degree. Kolakaluri Enoch has a fairly large body of work, which comprises 180 poems, 180 stories, 9 novels and 30 plays apart from other efforts on literary criticisms and Children's literature. Many of his works have been translated into other languages such as English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. His works have been subjected to critical studies for educational purposes and nine PhDs and 5 MPhils have been reported to be based on them. One of his stoies, Talalenodu, was a prescribed text book for intermediate course at Andhra University during the period from 1987 to 1995. Enoch, belonging to a backward community, was also reported to be a social activist and, championed the cause of Dalits through his works. He was a member of the jury for T. V. Nandi awards of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in the year 1992.