Sat Mar 08 16:36:01 UTC 2025: ## Local Tamil Professor Wins Prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation
**Nagercoil, March 8, 2025** – P. Vimala, a 36-year-old Tamil professor at St. Xavier’s College in Tirunelveli, has been awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for her translation of the controversial Malayalam novel *Ente Anungal* (Autobiography) by Nalini Jameela. The award recognizes Vimala’s contribution to Tamil literature through her translation, titled *Enatu Aankal*, published by Kalaichuvadu publications in Nagercoil.
Vimala, a native of Kulasekaram in Kanniyakumari district, discovered her passion for translation while pursuing her M.Phil and Ph.D at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Her first translation was *Vivekanandam* by S. Sujathan. However, it was her translation of *Ente Anungal*, a book that sparked controversy in Kerala for its unflinching portrayal of a sex worker’s life, that garnered her widespread acclaim and the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Vimala explained that she was drawn to the book’s raw honesty and its exploration of the complexities of sex workers’ lives and relationships. She is currently working on several other translation projects, including translating works from Malayalam to Tamil and vice-versa. While she insists she never pursued the award, she expressed immense joy at the recognition and stated her intention to continue her work in translation.
First Piper 