Women AutHer Awards announces winners, Marathi writer Urmila Pawar gets Lifetime Achievement Award

The winners of the 2026 Women AutHer Awards in four categories were announced on Sunday. The winners were chosen by juries, and, in the case of the popular choice, through online voting. The winning authors received cash prizes of Rs 1 lakh each, with the amount being shared equally by joint winners.

Marathi writer and feminist Urmila Pawar, best-known for her autobiography, The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. The jury said that “through her writing, she has given voice to stories often left unheard, shaping conversations around identity, equality, and justice with remarkable honesty and depth.”

Here are the 2026 winners:

Fiction: Rising Sons, Kavery Nambisan

Children’s books: Ganesh Haloi: Colours of Home, Likla Lall

Nonfiction

• Rubber: The Social and Natural History of an Indispensable Substance, Vidya Rajan

• A Man For All Seasons: The Life Of KM Panikkar, Narayani Basu

Debut

• Invisible in Plain Sight: Voices From the By-Lanes of Kamathipura, Swati Pandey

• Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains, Subi Taba

Popular choice: Blame it on the Hormones: The Divine Chemistry, The Daily Chaos, Astha Gill

Best manuscript: City of Doom, Saanvi Shabeesh...

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