K. B. Prasannakumar

K. B. Prasannakumar is an Indian Malayalam language writer, literary critic and translator. In 2011, he won both Sahitya Akademi Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for translation. He received the Kerala State Institute of Children's Literature Thiruvananthapuram Book Fair Award for Literary Criticism in 2012 for his book Athijeevikkunna Vakku

Biography K. B. Prasannakumar is a native of Vembally near Kuravilangad in Kottayam district of Kerala. His father is K.P. Bhaskara Kaimal and mother K. Thanka. He studied at Kumaranalloor Devi Vilasam High School and Deva Matha College, Kuravilangad. He graduated in Physics and obtained a postgraduate degree in Malayalam. He retired as an officer at State Bank of India. Then he started writing literary criticism articles in the Samathalam magazine. Later, DC Books commissioned him to edit a book on Himalayan travels, Himalayam: Kazhcha, Darshanam.

Translations Notes from the Himalayas is the collection of reminiscences of Ruskin Bond. Prasannakumar translated this book for Mathrubhumi Books. He translated Gabriel García Márquez's My Melancholy Whores, a poetic novel, into Malayalam as Ente vishadaganikasmrithikal (D C books, 2022). He translated The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor into Malayalam as Maha(bharatha)kadha. In 2007, he translated Sophie's World , by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder into Malayalam as Sophiyude Lokam.

Awards and honors Prasannakumar received the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize from Sahitya Akademi Government of Indiafor translating Sudhir Kakar's work Meera and Mahatma into Malayalam as Meerayum Mahathmavum. He also received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation from Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Government of Kerala for his translation of Roberto Calasso's Ka into Malayalam.