Banaras Lit Fest has announced the longlist for the second Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards. Under these awards, selected and noteworthy literary works of various genres and languages published in the year 2025 will be honored. These awards, given in the categories of fiction, non-fiction prose, poetry and translation, highlight the creative and intellectual contributions of writers as well as translators.
This year’s longlist includes works by established writers as well as emerging new creative voices, impressively highlighting the depth, diversity and creative energy of contemporary Indian writing.
Categories like Rabindranath Tagore Translation Award, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Non-Fiction Prose Award, Ruskin Bond Fiction Award, Premchand Katha Award, Mahadevi Verma Non-Fiction Prose Award, Rahul Sankrityayan Translation Award and Kabir Poetry Award powerfully express Banaras Lit Fest’s deep commitment towards India’s multilingual, multicultural and vibrant literary tradition.
2nd Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards – Longlist (English)
Ruskin Bond Award (Fiction)
The World With Its Mouth Open – Zahid Rafiq
Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains — Subi Taba
Muses Over Mumbai – Murzaban S. shroff
The Elsewhereians: A Documentary – Jeet Thayil
Our Friends in Good Houses – Rahul Pandita
Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith – Shinni Antony
The Tiger’s Share – Keshav Guha
The Burnings – Himanjali Sankar
Mrs. Happily Single – Shubha Sarma
A Fatal Distraction – Sanyukta Bhowmik
Sarojini Naidu Award (Poetry)
Freeren – Easterin Kier
The Gallery of Upside Down Women – Arundhati Subramaniam
The Hanuman Chalisa – Abhay’s
Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You – Meena Kandasamy
So That You Know – Mani Rao
Coins in Reverse – Rochelle Potkar
Lone Pine – Siddharth Menon
The Art of Unboxing – Neera Kashyap
A Blur of a Woman – Basudhara Roy
Merakstapa: Border Walker — Brainerd Prince
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award (Non-Fiction)
Father Tongue, Motherland – Peggy Mohan
The Call of Music – Priya Purushothaman
Learning from silence – Pico Iyer
Candle in the Wind – Sharmistha Shenoy
The Fall of Kabul – Nayanima Basu
Story of an Unknown Indian – Neha Dixit
Shattered Lands – Sam Dalrymple
Believer’s Dilemma – Abhishek Chaudhary
Charles Corea: Citizen Charles – Mustansir Dalvi
Song of the Clay Pot – Sumana Chandrashekhar
Rabindranath Tagore Award (Translation)
Limited/Unlimited – Shankar
Translation: Arunava Sinha
This Place of Mud and Bone – Sanjay Bista
Translation: Anurag Basnet
The Dead Fish – Rajkamal Chaudhary
Translation: Mahua Sen
The Owl, the River, the Valley – Arupa Patangiya Kalita
Translation: Mitra Phukan
Cast Away – Nah. Vanamamalai
Translation: Joshua Gnanselvan
Whose Urdu Is It Anyway? — Rakhshanda Jalil
Loot Loot – Baburao Bagul
Translation: Manav Kaul
The Madhouse: Pagalkhana – Gyan Chaturvedi
Translation: Punarvasu Joshi
The Divine Sword – Rita Chaudhary
Translation (from Assamese): Rita Borbora
Shabnam – Syed Mujtaba Ali
Translation: Nazes Afroz
2nd Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards – Longlist (Hindi)
Premchand Award (Fiction)
Distance Marriage – Mamta Kalia
Affidavit – Raju Sharma
Khalal – Santosh Dixit
Meaning Hindu – Amber Pandey
Aprem and other stories – Anil Yadav
Trimaya – Manisha Kulshrestha
Model – Manoj Kumar Pandey
Atar – Pratyaksha
Naya Nagar – Tasneef Haider
Ishq Baaki – Pankaj Dubey
Kabir Award (Poetry)
Painter’s Kitchen – Arun Kamal
Monument of an Anonymous Leaf – Naresh Saxena
Poems of the Mad Mathematician – Udayan Vajpayee
When things come late in life – Nishant
Buddha and Pharaoh – Deepak Jaiswal
Prayer for love – Kundan
Not in language – Sapna Bhatt
I wanted to become a singer – Hariom Rajoria
Shreyasi – Vinay Kumar
Blue Interest – Adnan Kafeel ‘Darvish’
Rahul Sankrityayan Award (non-fiction)
In the name of Gandhi – Parag Mandalay
75 years of Hindi literature: From Nehru era to Modi era – Sudhir Pachauri
Folklore of Bhakti and poetry of Ravidas – Shriprakash Shukla
Inscriptions of memories – Suryabala
This is how divorce has gone – Seema Kapoor
Ever since my eyes opened – Liladhar Mandloi
Thakurbari – Animesh Mukherjee
Farmer’s Story: For Daughter – Sorit Gupto
The world of sorrow lies within – J. Sushil
Democracy of news channels – Anand Pradhan
Mahadevi Verma Award (Translation)
Corners of Civilization – Ramchandra Guha
Translation: Anil Maheshwari
Awake Tujhe Go Away – Namita Gokhale
Translation: Aishwarya Kumar
Ambedkar: A Life – Shashi Tharoor
Translation: Amresh Dwivedi
Charu, Cheevar and Charya – Pradeep Dash
Translation: Sujata Shiven
Period of Revolution of 857 – Thomas Henry Kavanagh
Translator: Rajgopal Singh Verma
Forgotten public leader of Banaras: Babu Jagat Singh – H.A. Qureshi, Shreya Pathak, Translator: Shaan Kashyap
Autobiographer in his own right – Ruskin Bond
Translation: Prabhat Singh
Democracy’s Watchdog – Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
Translation: Abhishek Srivastava
Why can’t elephants be red? — Vani Tripathi Tikku
Translation: Aditi Maheshwari-Goyal
Sameer: A Travelogue with Words – Derek Bose
Translation: Morning Milind
Banaras Lit Fest President Deepak Madhok while releasing the longlist said,
“In presenting the longlist of the second edition of the Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards, we are honored to celebrate the linguistic and genre diversity of Indian literature. These works reflect the same spirit of storytelling, translation and cultural dialogue that is the soul of Banaras Lit Fest.”
Fest Secretary Brijesh Singh said, “The longlist of the second year of the Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards brings to the fore the breadth of contemporary Indian writing and translation. This year we received approximately 1,200 nominations from leading publishing houses and individual authors. Our distinguished jury has selected this list with utmost care and diligence. These books offer new perspectives and enrich the literary landscape. We now look forward to announcing the shortlist.” Waiting.”
The shortlist for Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards 2025 will be announced on 17 January 2026, while the final winners will be announced on 21 January 2026. The winner of each category will be awarded a cash prize of ₹51,000, a trophy and certificate, which will be awarded during the festival.
For more information related to Banaras Lit Fest and Book Awards, visit the official website or follow us on social media platforms.