Sahitya Akademi Award winner Puviyarasu dead

Poet Puviyarasu, a two-time recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and one of the founders of the Vanampadi poetry movement that helped shape modern Tamil verse, died on Tuesday, June 30, 2026.

He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation in 2006 for his Tamil translation of the poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam, published under the title Puratchikaran. In 2009, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry collection Kaiyoppam.

DMK president M.K. Stalin and CPI(M) State secretary P. Shanmugam condoled his death, recalling his immense contribution to Tamil literature and modern poetry.