Crossword Book Awards 2026: Longlists of ten books in five categories announced

The ten-book longlists in the five jury categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Translation, Children’s, and Business and Management – for the 2026 Crossword Book Awards have been announced. The shortlist will be announced in October, and the awards ceremony will be held in Mumbai in December. The winning authors will get a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each.

Each category is judged by a separate jury. The jury for Fiction comprises Anuja Chauhan, Manju Kapur, and Samit Basu. The Nonfiction jury consists of Anirudh Kanisetti, Jyoti Malhotra, and Naresh Fernandes. Translations are being judged by Meena Kandasamy, Ranjit Hoskote, and Srinath Perur. The judges for Children’s books are Fiona Fernandez, Payal Kapadia, and Ranjit Lal. Monika Halan, Rama Bijapurkar, and Shrayana Bhattacharya make up the jury for Business and Management.

Here are the longlists:

Nonfiction

• Believer’s Dilemma: Vajpayee and the Hindu Right’s Path to Power, 1978–2018 by Abhishek Choudhary

• Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalayas by Anuradha Roy

• Dapaan: Tales from Kashmir’s Conflict by Ipsita Chakravarty

• Scamlands: Inside the Ancient Empire of Fraud That Preys on the World by Snigdha Poonam

• The Dig: Keeladi and Politics of India’s Past by Sowmiya Ashok

• The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music by Sumana Ramanan

• The Great Indian Brain Rot: Love, Lies & Algorithms in Digital India by Anurag...

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