The Banaras Lit Fest has announced the longlists in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation categories for its 2025 book awards. Besides English, the awards are also given to Hindi language books.
The shortlist will be announced on February 9. The winners in each category will receive a cash prize of Rs 51,000, along with a certificate and a trophy, during the festival which will be held in Varanasi between March 7 and March 9.
The longlisted books in each category are:
Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction
The Patient in Bed Number 12, Raj Kamal Jha, Penguin India
Like Being Alive Twice, Dharini Bhaskar, Penguin India
Aunties of Vasant Kunj, Anuradha Marwah, Rupa Publications
Deccan Queen: Take Two, Farrukh Dhondy, Om Book International
Autumn Blossoms, Gajra Kottary, Om Book International
Wayel Kati: The Quest of the Seven Guardians, Linthoi Chanu, Niyogi Books
The New New Delhi Book Club, Radhika Swarup, Westland
The Forgotten Wife: The Story of Hidimbi and Bhim, Madhavi Mahadevan, Speaking Tiger Books
Never Never Land, Namita Gokhale, Speaking Tiger Books
The Woman Who Climbed Trees, Smriti Ravindra, HarperCollins India
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Nonfiction
Tripping Down the Ganga: A Son’s Exploration of Faith, Siddharth Kapila, Speaking Tiger Books
Fire on the Ganges: Life Among Dead in Banaras, Radhika Iyengar, HarperCollins India
How Prime Ministers Decide, Neerja Chowdhury, Aleph Book Company
Gilded Cage: Years that Made and Unmade Kashmir, Sandeep Bamzai, Rupa Publications
Bharat Rising: Dharma, Democracy and Diplomacy, Utpal Kumar, BlueOne Ink
The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India through the Lens of Sport, Sohini Chattopadhyay, HarperCollins India
The Jannayak Karpoori Thakur: Voice of the Voiceless, Santosh Singh and Aditya Anmol, Penguin India
Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve, Urmilla Deshpande and Thiago Pinto Barbosa, Speaking Tiger Books
Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum (1760-1799), Vikram Sampath, Penguin India
The Notbook of Kabir: Thinner Than Water, Fiercer Than Fire, Anand, Penguin India
Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry
Mandalas of Time, Malashri Lal, Hawakal Publishers
To the Moon and Back: Life, Love and Everything In-between, Maria Goretti, Om Book International
Nostalgia: Crafting a Home Within, Mahua Sen, Red River
White Shirts of Summer: New and Selected Poems, Mamang Dai, Speaking Tiger Books
My Body Didn’t Come Before Me: Poems, Kuhu Joshi, Speaking Tiger Books
The Last Time I Saw You, Akhil Katyal, HarperCollins India
I’ll Have It Here: Poems, Jeet Thayil, HarperCollins India
Sweet Malida: Memories of a Bene Israel Woman, Zilka Joseph, Mayapple Press
Yellow, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Sahitya Akademi
Eartha, Vinita Agrawal, Sahitya Akademi
Rabindranath Tagore Award for Translation
Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan, Penguin India
The Keeper of Desolation: Stories, Chandan Pandey, translated from the Hindi by Sayari Debnath, HarperCollins India
I Named My Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Westland
Sakina’s Kiss, Vivek Shanbhag, translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur, Penguin India
Sawaneh-i-Delhi: Biography of Delhi, Mirza Ahmad Akhtar Gorgani, translated from the Urdu by Ather Farouqui, Roli Books
Boy, Unloved, Damodar Mauzo, translated from the Konkani by Jerry Pinto, Speaking Tiger Books
The Homeland’s an Ocean, Mir Taqi Mir, translated from the Urdu by Ranjit Hoskote, Penguin India
The Yellow Sparrow: Memoir of a Transgender Woman, Santa Khurai, translated from the Manipuri by Rubani Yumkhaibam, Speaking Tiger Books
The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from Bengali by V Ramaswamy, Westland
How to Love in Sanskrit, translated by Anusha Rao and Suhas Mahesh, HarperCollins India
Disclosure: Sayari Debnath is senior writer for the Books and Ideas section of Scroll.
