Bena Sareen wins 2026 Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize for Amitava Kumar’s ‘My Beloved Life’

Bena Sareen is the winner of the 11th Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize for designing the cover for Amitava Kumar’s novel, My Beloved Life, published by Aleph Book Company. She received a trophy, a certificate, and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh at the awards ceremony on May 26 in New Delhi. This marks her second win, after a previous award in the inaugural edition for her cover design of Talking of Justice by Leila Seth, also published by Aleph Book Company.

In addition to the winning cover, the jury also recognised two outstanding covers for their compelling visual language and innovative graphic expression. These included the works of Shadab Khan for The Remains of the Body (by Saikat Majumdar) published by Penguin Random House, and of Pinaki De for Carnival (by Sayam Bandyopadhyay, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha) published by Aleph Book Company.

This year’s jury was chaired by Alka Pande, museum curator, art historian, and author, and comprised Shashi Tharoor, author and member of parliament; Anja Riedeberger, Director Information Services South Asia Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan; and Samar Jodha, installation artist....

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