Banaras Lit Fest 2026 Book Awards announces longlists in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation

The Banaras Lit Fest has announced the longlist for its 2026 Book Awards across multiple genres and Hindi and English languages.

The shortlist will be announced on January 17, and the winners on January 21. The winner in each category will receive a cash prize of Rs 51,000, along with a trophy and a certificate, to be presented during the festival.

Here are the longlisted books:

Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction

• The World With Its Mouth Open, Zahid Rafiq, Penguin India

• Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains, Subi Taba, Penguin India

• Muses Over Mumbai, Murzban S Shroff, Bloomsbury India

• The Elsewherians: A Documentary Novel, Jeet Thayil, HarperCollins India

• Our Friends in Good Houses, Rahul Pandita, HarperCollins India

• Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith, Shinie Antony, Hachette India

• The Tiger’s Share, Keshava Guha, Bloomsbury India

• The Burnings, Himanjali Sankar, Pan Macmillan India

• Mrs Happily Single, Shubha Sarma, Niyogi Books

• A Fatal Distraction, Samyukta Bhowmick, Juggernaut

Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry

• Freerain, Easterine Kire, Penguin India

• The Gallery of Upside Down Women, Arundhati Subramaniam, Penguin India

• The Hanuman Chalisa, Abhay K, Bloomsbury India

• Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You, Meena Kandasamy, Juggernaut

• So That You Know, Mani Rao, HarperCollins India

• Coins in Rivers, Rochelle Potkar, Hachette India

• Lone Pine, Siddhartha Menon, Hachette India

• The Art of Unboxing, Neera Kashyap, Red River Press

• A Blur of a Woman, Basudhara Roy, Red River Press

• Mearcstapa: Border Walker, Brainerd Prince, Rupa Publications

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Nonfiction

• Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Language in South Asia, Peggy Mohan, Penguin India

• The Call of Music: Eight Stories of Hindustani Musicians, Priya Purushothaman, Hachette India

• Learning from Silence, Pico Iyer, Penguin India

• Candle in the Wind:...

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