The Kalinga Literary Festival has announced the shortlists for its 2026 Book Awards in five categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translation, and Debut. The winners will be announced in September 2026 and awards will be presented at the inaugural ceremony of KLF Indraprastha between October 3 and 4.
Here are the complete shortlists:
Nonfiction
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, Vauhini Vara
The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, Anand Teltumbde
Scamlands: Inside the Asian Empire of Fraud That Preys on the World, Snigdha Poonam
Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy
Fiction
Great Eastern Hotel, Ruchir Joshi
The Elsewhereans, Jeet Thayil
The Beast Within, Rudraneil Sengupta
Absolute Jafar, Sarnath Banerjee
Poetry
The City under the City, John Kinsella and Jeet Thayil
So That You Know, Mani Rao
My Life Closed Twice, Subhashini Kaligotla
Folie à Deux, Jennifer Robertson
Translation
Mudritha, Jissa Jose, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Tiger Lessons, Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy, translated from Telugu by Narasimha Kumar;
Nowhere People, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from Bengali by Anchita Ghatak
Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
Debut
The World With Its Mouth Open, Zahid Rafiq
The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past, Sowmiya Ashok
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, Sam Dalrymple
The Map Is Not the Territory: Poems, Aranya Padil
