S. Venkatesan

S. Venkatesan is a Tamil writer from Tamil Nadu, India. His mother tongue is Telugu. His only novel Kavalkottam was published in 2008. It was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil in 2011. The film Aravaan is based on it. Venkatesan is a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM). He contested and lost in the 2006 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election from the Thirupparankundram constituency. He is the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association.

Biography

Venkatesan finished his schooling from Muthu Thevar Mukkulathor Hr Sec School in Thiruparankundram near Madurai. In 1988 joined Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College situated in Pasumalai - in the outskirts of Madurai. He enrolled in the B.Com course and completed his college studies in the year 1991. He won as many as 200 prizes in the span of 3 years in his college life. He was a very good orator as well as a good writer. According to Venkatesan, it took ten years to complete Kavalkottam. He is married to Kamala and they have two daughters - Yazhini and Tamizhini.

Awards

In 2010, his historical novel 'Kaaval Kottam' received the Fiction Award from The Tamil Literary Garden, Canada. The next year, it got him the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award on the following year.