The Crossword Book Award, one of the coveted literary awards in the country, is back after a hiatus of five years. Launched in 1998, it is one of the longest-running awards in India, and aims to recognise and celebrate Indian writing in English across several categories and segments.

This year, the entries for the five categories—Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s, Translations, and Business and Management—opened on 18th March and saw hundreds of submissions from publishers around the country for books published in the English language in India from 1st March 2023 to 1st March 2024.

The Jury Awards and Popular Choice Awards winners in each category will receive a cash prize of Rs 50,000. The translators (in the Translations category) and illustrators (in the Children’s category) will be awarded Rs 25,000 wherever applicable.

After reading and deliberating on all the eligible books, the three-member Jury in each category, comprising some of the most distinguished and acclaimed names from the literary world, submitted the longlists of ten books for the 2024 edition of the Awards.

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

Instituted in 1998, the Crossword Book Award claims to bring together the entire literary community—readers, authors, booksellers and publishers—like none other. It is the only Indian award that recognizes and rewards the finest of Indian writing in English, as selected by the Jury, and actively promotes Indian authors and their books. In addition to the Jury Awards, the eligible books are also open to be voted on by readers, the results of which will constitute the Popular Choice Awards.

The Jury for this year’s Award constitutes respected literary figures from a range of experiences and expertise. In the Fiction category, the three-member panel is composed of Prayaag Akbar, award-winning author, journalist and mentor, Manjula Narayan, Books Editor and Podcast host at Hindustan Times, and Somak Ghoshal, writer and critic. In the Non-fiction category, the Jury consists of TCA Raghavan, former diplomat and author, Kaveree Bamzai, senior journalist, writer and editor, and Anuradha Sengupta, journalist and editor. The panel for the Children’s category 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. In the Translations category the judges include Arshia Sattar, award-winning translator and writer, Nandini Nair, Arts and Literary journalist and editor, and Malashri Lal, academic and writer. The Business and Management category has a judging panel composed of 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.

Speaking about the Crossword Book Award and its return, Aakash Gupta, CEO of Crossword Bookstores, said, “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.”

The shortlist for the Crossword Book Award 2024 will be announced on 11th November. The voting lines for the Popular Choice Awards will be opening soon. The final Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on 12th December with some of the most acclaimed writers, artistes and industry leaders in attendance.