Rajesh Vankar is a Gujarati writer from

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, India. He won the

Yuva Puraskar The Yuva Puraskar, also known as Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in t ...

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in 2015 for his story collection ''Maalo''. He is currently an editor of '' Parivesh''.

Early life

Rajesh Vankar was born on 4 September 1981 in Bahi, village in Shehra of

Panchmahal district Panchmahal, also rendered as Panch Mahal, is a district in the eastern portion of Gujarat State western India. ''Panch-mahal'' means "five tehsils/talukas" (5 sub-divisions), and refers to the five sub-divisions that were transferred by the Mahar ...

. He is native of Rampura Jodka near

Godhra Godhra () is a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district. Originally the name came from ''gou'' which means "cow" and "dhara"- which have two meanings depend ...

. He took his primary education from Prathamik Shala Rampura and Prathamik Shala Jodka. He completed his Std. 12 in 1999 from Shri G.D. Shah and Pandya High School, Mahelol. He started his college from J.L.K. Kotecha and Gardi College, Kankanpur in 2000 but failed in exam of first year. Then, he took admission in Gujarati department of

M.S. University Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a public university on April 30, 1949 and was renamed after ...

and graduated in 2004. He obtained his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees in 2009 from the same university for his research '' Gujarati Tunki Vartama Pariveshni Karyasadhakta'' (Function of Setting in Gujarati short stories). His guide for Ph.D. Degree was Jayesh Bhogayta, a Gujarati writer. In 2012, he earned M.Phil. from Gujarati Department of

Mumbai University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

for his research ''Vicharti Vimukta Jatini Vartao'' (Stories of nomadic communities). Vankar married Hetal in 2013, and they have a son, Bhargav.

Career

He has been writing poetry from a young age and was first published at the age of fifteen. In 2003, his short story came out for first time in ''Tadarthya'', a Gujarati language monthly journal. Subsequently, his writing has also been published in ''Tadarthya'', ''Kavi'', ''Tamanna'', ''Hayati'', '' Dalitchetna'', ''

Shabdasrishti ''Shabdasrishti'' (), the journal of the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi, is a Gujarati language, Gujarati literary magazine, published on the fifth of every month. The magazine was started in 1983, a year after the establishment of the Akademi. ''Shabda ...

'', and ''Tathapi''. He has served as assistant professor at the Government Arts and Science College, Morva (Hadaf) near

since 2015. Before that, he taught at graduate and postgraduate level at M.S. University,

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

. He is a member in a committee of Kabir Dalit Sahitya Award since 2012 and also serving as a secretary of Panchmahal Pradesh Yuva Vikas Sanstha.

Works

His works include a collection of poetry, ''Tarbheto'' (2009) and a collection of short stories, ''Malo'' (2009). ''Pidapratyayant'' (2012) and ''Tunki Vartani Vaat'' (2021) are works of literary criticism by him.

Research

* '' Gujarati Tunki Vartama Pariveshni Karyasadhakta'' (Ph.D. theses; 2012) * ''Dalit Chetna Kendri Tunki Vartama Parivesh'' (2012) * ''Vicharti Vimukta Jatinu Sahitya'' (M.Phil. theses; 2015) * ''Turi Barot Samaajno Abhyas''

Compilation

* ''Kalapina Kavyono Aswad'' (2014) * ''Navi Dharti Navo Mol'' (Poems of contemporary new poets)"Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2015" published by Sahitya Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi - 110001

Recognition

His research work '' Gujarati Tunki Vartama Pariveshni Karyasadhakta'' (Function of setting in Gujarati Short Stories) has won The Best Book Prize (2012) instituted by Gujarat Sahitya Akademi. In 2015, he was awarded

for his short story collection ''Maalo''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vankar, Rajesh Gujarati-language writers Gujarati-language poets Poets from Gujarat 1981 births Indian magazine editors People from Panchmahal district Living people Indian male short story writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar