'EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD' TO MELVYN RODRIGUES
BY THE INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF POETRY

The Konkani Poet and the Editor of Kavitakullar, Melvyn Rodrigues has been given "Editor's Choice Award" by the International Library of Poetry, U.S.A. for his outstanding achievement in Poetry.

His poem 'Leave Without Telling' has been featured; among several other poems from poets all around the world, in a quality hardbound volume, titled "Clouds Across the Stars", which is already in the market.

'Clouds Across the Stars' has been published by the Watermark Press of U.S.A., which includes a biographical section of most of the poets including that of Melvyn.

Melvyn is also among 33 poets around the world whose poetic artistry has been recorded professionally and released on both compact disc (CD) and cassette tape titled "The Sound of Poetry" and features an inspiring introduction as a prelude to the selected artistry as well as a brief commentary about the poem and the poet. Beautiful baroque music forms the background to the spoken words.

"Leave Without Telling" is a love poem, originally written in konkani in the year 1986, translated into English by Mr. Gerald D'Cunha of Mumbai, for his poetry magazine 'The Pearls".

Melvyn has published two of his own collection of poems, "Mogapello" and "Fintam" apart from several other publications. His book "Mogapello" has won for him Goa Konkani Bhasha Mandal Award in the year 1989. He has translated kannada short stories of Yashawanta Chittal into konkani as "Kanni Zali Choli", which has been published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. In the year 1990, he was awarded a travel grant to visit West Bengal by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi; the experience later he published as a travelogue "Godd'decho Ganv".

Almost 30 of his poems have been tuned and sung by the famous "Mandd Sobhann" group, many of which are available on audio cassettes. He is the 'Sompadak' of Daiji Dubai, the forum of konkani writers in the UAE. He has worked as the sub-editor of 'Mithr', 'Jhelo', 'Udev' and 'Jivit' magazines and was actively involved in the activities of Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Karnataka, Kalasampat, Mandd Sobhann, Zage Kavi etc. while in Mangalore.

From our Special Correspondent