Dr Mrinal Kalita received the Sahitya Akademi's Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2021 for his seminal debut Bakul Phular Dare, which became an overnight bestseller. The book has gone on to redefine the coming-of-age novel in Assamese and is now in its forty-second edition. The novel was read in thirty-two episodes on the novel reading programme of All India Radio, Guwahati, in 2020 and has been made into a feature film.

A professor of Mathematics by profession, Kalita’s short stories have been translated into English, Hindi, Odia, and Bengali. Jooj, one of Kalita’s stories for young adults, has also been included in the syllabus of CBSE and SEBA. Recently, Ajantrik (Not A Machine), was published in Translations: South & South East Asia, Issue 3 of adda – the prestigious online magazine run by Commonwealth Writers, the Cultural Programme of the Commonwealth Foundation.