Bengaluru’s Atta Galatta bookstore, in association with the Bangalore Literature Festival, has announced shortlists under eight categories of Fiction (English), Nonfiction (English), Popular Choice, Best Cover Design, and expanded categories for Children’s Writing, including Best Children’s Picture Book Story, Best Children’s Picture Book Illustrations, Best Children’s Book Fiction, and Best Children’s Book Nonfiction. An annual award is also presented for Literary Achievement in Kannada to an author in honour of their body of work and contribution to the language. The winners will be announced at the Bangalore Literature Festival, which will be held on December 3 and 4.

The shortlist for Fiction:

  • Breaking Free, Vaasanthi, translated from the Tamil by N Kalyan Raman, Harper Perennial
  • The Immortal King Rao, Vauhini Vara, 4th Estate
  • Qabar, KR Meera, translated from the Malayalam by Nisha Susan, Eka/Westland Books
  • Tomb of Sand, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, Penguin
  • The Wait and Other Stories, Damodar Mauzo, translated from the Konkani by Xavier Cota, Penguin Vintage
  • Valli: A Novel, Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil, Harper Perennial

The shortlist for Nonfiction:

  • Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and The Search for Intimacy and Independence, Shrayana Bhattacharya, Harper Collins
  • The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis, Kafeel Khan, Pan Macmillan
  • India, Bharat and Pakistan: The Constitutional Journey of a Sandwiched Civilization, J Sai Deepak, Bloomsbury
  • Lords of the Deccan: Southern India from The Chalukyas and The Cholas, Anirudh Kanisetti, Juggernaut
  • The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, Amitav Ghosh, Penguin Allen Lane
  • Writer Rebel Soldier Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya, Akshaya Mukul, Penguin Vintage

The shortlist for Children’s Fiction:

  • The Coward and the Sword, Jugal Hansraj, Harper Collins
  • The Ghost of Malabar, Soumya Ayer, Harper Collins
  • Maithili and the Minotaur: Web of Woe, CG Salamander and Rajiv Eipe, Puffin
  • Misfit Madhu, Divya Anand, Puffin
  • Pinkoo Shergill Pastry Chef, Vibha Batra, Scholastic
  • Savi and the Memory Keeper, Bijal Vaccharajani, Hachette

The shortlist for Children’s Nonfiction:

  • Amma, Take Me to the Taj Mahal, Bhakti Mathur, Puffin
  • Cadet No 1 And Other Amazing Women in the Armed Forces, Maya Chandrasekara, Harper Collins
  • India’s Freedom Story, Ira Saxena and Nilima Sinha, Harper Collins
  • Journey to the Edge of the Earth: True Adventure of Naval Officer Abhilash Tomy, Joeanna Rebello Fernandes and Abhilash Tomy, Penguin
  • Naturalist Ruddy: Adventurer. Sleuth. Mongoose, Rohan Chakravarty, Penguin
  • Up the Mountains of India: A Fun, Fact-Filled Trek across the Country’s Major Ranges, Mala Kumar, Hachette

The shortlist for Picture Book – Story:

  • Are Your Emotions Like Mine?, Chitwan Mittal and Shruti Heman, AdiDev Press
  • Beauty is Missing, Priya Kuriyan, Pratham Books
  • The Boy Who Wore Bangles, Riddhi Maniar Doda and Shruto Hemani, Karadi Tales
  • I Am So Much More that the Colour of My Skin, Divya Thomas, Harper Collins
  • Many Colours of Us, Lavanya Kapahi, Tulika
  • Paati’s Rasam, Janaki Sabesh and Dhwani Sabesh, Karadi Tales

The shortlist for Picture Book – Illustrations:

  • A Full Circle, written and illustrated by Namrita Bachchan, Harper Design
  • Dugga, written and illustrated by Rajiv Eipe, Pratham Books
  • Maithili and the Minotaur: Web of Woe, CJ Salamander, illustrated by Rajiv Eipe, Puffin
  • My Upside Down World, Ken Spillman, illustrated by Silvana Giraldo, Pickle Yolk
  • The Theatre of Ghosts, written and illustrated by Pankaj Saikia, Pratham Books
  • We Are The Dancing Forest, Raj Shekhar, illustrated by Venkat Shyam, Tulika

The shortlist for Cover Design is:

  • Adam, S Hareesh, cover design by Anubha Jain, Penguin Vintage
  • Chronicles of the Lost Daughters, Debarati Mukhopadhyay, cover design by DhakaYeah, Harper Collins
  • Ladies Tailor, Priya Hajela, cover design by Giggling Monkey Studio, Harper Collins
  • The Living Mountain: A Fable for our Times, Amitav Ghosh, cover design by Devangana Dash, 4th Estate
  • The Muslim Vanishes: A Play, Saeed Naqvi, cover design by Antra K, Penguin
  • Tears of the Begum: Stories of Survivors of the Uprising of 1857, Khwaja Hasan Nizami, cover design by Reya Ahmed, Hachette

The Shortlist for Popular Choice is:

  • Abhimanyu: Son of Arjuna, Anuja Chandramouli, Leadstart
  • Hope: Wisdom to Survive in a Hopeless World, Devdutt Pattanaik, Juggernaut
  • Open Book: Not Quite a Memoir, Kubbra Sait, Harper Collins
  • The 7 Sins of Being a Mother, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Juggernaut
  • Unsung: Poems, Arunoday Singh, Penguin eBury