PVLF 2025

Crossword Book Award Returns After Five-Year Hiatus

The Crossword Book Award returns after five years, celebrating Indian literature across five categories with cash prizes and a distinguished jury.
on Oct 15, 2024

The Crossword Book Award, one of the longest-running literary honors in India, has returned this year after a five-year pause. This award which was established in 1998, is dedicated to recognising and celebrating Indian literature written in English across various categories. The awards recognizes finest of Indian writing in English and promotes Indian authors for their remarkable works.

The submission for five categories including Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s Literature, Translations, and Business and Management, opened on March 18 this year. Hundreds of entries from publishers across the nation submitted the entries for books published in India between March 1, 2023, and March 1, 2024.

Winners of both the Jury Awards and the Popular Choice Awards will receive a cash prize of ₹50,000. In addition to that, translators in the Translations category and illustrators in the Children’s category will be awarded ₹25,000 where applicable. The winners of this prestigious category of awards are selected by the Jury. In addition to the Jury awards, the books are also open for reader voting, the results of which constitute the Popular Choice Awards.

This year, the Jury consists of various respected literary figures from a range of experiences. The Fiction category constitutes the three-member panel, which comprises Prayaag Akbar, award-winning author, journalist and mentor; Manjula Narayan, Books Editor and Podcast host at Hindustan Times, and Somak Ghoshal, writer and critic. The panel of the Non-Fiction category consists of TCA Raghavan, former diplomat and author; Kaveree Bamzai, senior journalist, writer and editor, and Anuradha Sengupta, journalist, and editor. For the Children’s category, the panel comprises Paro Anand, Sahitya Akademi awardee, writer and children’s literature activist, Bulbul Sharma, the acclaimed painter and writer; and Parvati Sharma, the renowned writer and author of children’s books. Arshia Sattar, award-winning translator and writer; Nandini Nair, Arts and Literary journalist and editor, and Malashri Lal, academic and writer, will be the judges in the Translations category. The judging panel for the Business and Management category comprises Khozem Merchant, former journalist and head of Brunswick India, R. Sriram, the noted entrepreneur and business advisor, and Shaili Chopra, author and founder of SheThePeople and Gytree

Aakash Gupta, CEO of Crossword Bookstores, stated, “As we bring back the Crossword Book Awards, we aim to celebrate the rich tapestry of Indian literature and honor the voices that shape our literary landscape. This event is not just about recognizing excellence; it’s also about inspiring future generations to explore the power of storytelling and the joy of reading.”

Fiction (Longlist)

History’s Angel, by Anjum Hasan
Never, Never Land, by Namita Gokhale
The Memoirs of Valmiki Rao, by Lindsay Pereira
The East Indian, by Brinda Charry
The Gallery, by Manju Kapur
Quarterlife, by Devika Rege
Can’t, by Shinie Antony
Chronicle of an Hour and a Half, by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
Tall Tales By a Small Dog, by Omair Ahmad
Shakchunni, by Arnab Ray

Non-fiction (Longlist)

From Phansi Yard, by Sudha Bhardwaj
The Day I Became a Runner, by Sohini Chattopadhyay
City on Fire, by Zeyad Masroor Khan
Swadeshi Steam, by A. R. Venkatachalapathy
A Part Apart, by Ashok Gopal
Mother Cow Mother India, by Yamini Narayanan
Anger Management, by Ajay Bisaria
Being Hindu Being Indian, by Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav
Marginlands, by Arati Kumar-Rao
Fire on the Ganges, by Radhika Iyengar

Translations (Longlist)

Beneath the Simolu Tree, by Sarmishtha Pritam, tr from Assamese by Ranjita Biswas
Boy, Unloved, by Damodar Mauzo, tr from Konkani by Jerry Pinto
I Named My Sister Silence, by Manoj Rupda, tr from Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Dudiya – In Your Burning Land, by Vishwas Patil, tr from Marathi by Nadeem Khan
Mithun Number Two, by Jayant Kaikini, tr from Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana
Fire Bird, by Perumal Murugan, tr from Tamil by Janani Kannan
Sakina’s Kiss, by Vivek Shanbhag, tr from Kannada by Srinath Perur
A Woman Burnt, by Imayam, tr from Tamil by GJV Prasad
Maria Just Maria, by Sandhya Mary, tr from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Fruits of the Barren Tree, by Lekhnath Chhetri, tr from Nepali by Anurag Basnet

Children’s (Longlist)

Zen, by Shabnam Minwalla
The Henna Start-Up, by Andaleeb Wajid
Bipathu and a Very Big Dream, by Anita Nair
The Case of the Vanishing Gods, by Mallika Ravikumar
A Children’s History of India in 100 Objects, by Devika Cariapa
Mommies, by Richa Jha and Priya Sebastian
From Makaras to Manticores, by C. G. Salamander and Sheena Deviah
Are There Bun Shops in the Jungles of India? and Other Secret Stories from History, by Nandini Nayar
The Dog with Two Names: Stories that Celebrate Diversity, by Nandita Da Cunha
The Misadventures of a Diamond Thief, by Lubaina Bandukwala

Business and Management (Longlist)

Accelerating India’s Development: A State-led Roadmap For Effective Governance, by Karthik Muralidharan
Al Rising: India’s Artificial Intelligence Growth Story, by Leslie D’Monte and Jayanth N. Kolla
Exprovement: Exponential Improvements Through Converging Parallels, by Hersh Haladker and Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
Farmer Sutra, by Kalpana Manivannan
Inside the Boardroom: How Behaviour Trumps Rationality, by R. Gopalakrishnan and Tulsi Jayakumar
Lilliput Land: How Small Is Driving India’s Mega Consumption Story, by Rama Bijapurkar
Mastering the Data Paradox, by Nitin Seth
The Eight Per Cent Solution: A Strategy for India’s Growth, by Nikhil Gupta
Unfiltered: The CEO and the Coach, by Ana Lueneburger and Saurabh Mukherjea
When the Chips Are Down, by Pranay Kotasthane and Abhiram Manchi

The shortlist for the Crossword Book Awards 2024 will be revealed on November 11. Voting for the Popular Choice Awards will open soon, with the final ceremony scheduled for December 12 in Mumbai, featuring prominent writers, artists, and industry leaders.