N. P. Mohammed (1 July 1929 - 3 January 2003), popularly known by his initials N.P., was a well known Malayalam

Malayalam language

Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

 novelist and short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 writer from Kerala state, South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. He, along with his contemporaries like M. T. Vasudevan Nair

M. T. Vasudevan Nair

Madathil Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair , popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He was born in Kudallur, a small village in the present day Palakkad District, which was under the Malabar District in the Madras Presidency of the British Raj...

, O. V. Vijayan

O. V. Vijayan

Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam , Vijayan has six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.-...

, Kakkanadan

Kakkanadan

George Varghese Kakkanadan , commonly known as Kakkanadan, was a Malayalam language short story writer and novelist from Kerala state, South India. He is often credited with laying the foundation of modernism in Malayalam literature...

, and Kamala Das

Kamala Das

Kamala Suraiyya was a major Indian English poet and literateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala state, South India...

 ushered in a modernist

Modernist literature

Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...

 movement in Malayalam fiction in the late 1950s. During his long literary career NP served as the President of Kerala Sahitya Akademi

Kerala Sahithya Academy

Kerala Sahitya Akademi or Academy for Malayalam literature is an autonomous body established to promote Malayalam language and literature. It is situated in Thrissur, Kerala in India. The academy was inaugurated on October 15, 1956, by Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the former king of...

. His novel Daivathinte Kannu won the Kendra Sahithya Academy Award

Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

(Malayalam) in 1993.