After a five-year hiatus, the Crossword Book Award, one of India’s oldest literary accolades, is back this year. This prize was created in 1998 with the goal of honouring and promoting Indian writing in English across a range of genres. The awards encourage Indian authors for their outstanding works and honour the best of Indian writing in English.

On March 18 of this year, the submissions for five categories—fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature, translations, and business and management—opened. Entries for novels released in India between March 1, 2023, and March 1, 2024, were submitted by hundreds of publishers across.

A ₹50,000 cash reward will be given to the winners of the Popular Choice and Jury Awards. Additionally, ₹25,000 will be given to illustrators in the Children’s category and translators in the Translations category, if eligible. The Jury chooses the winners of this esteemed award category. The novels are also up for reader voting, with the results becoming the Popular Choice Awards in addition to the Jury Awards.

The Jury for the 2019 Indian Book Awards includes a panel of literary experts from various backgrounds. The Fiction category includes Prayaag Akbar, Manjula Narayan, and Somak Ghoshal. The Non-Fiction category includes TCA Raghavan, Kaveree Bamzai, Anuradha Sengupta, Paro Anand, Bulbul Sharma, Parvati Sharma, Arshia Sattar, Nandini Nair, and Malashri Lal. The Translations category judges include Arshia Sattar, Nandini Nair, and Malashri Lal.

Aakash Gupta, CEO of Crossword Bookstores, stated, “As we bring back the Crossword Book Awards, we aim to celebrate the rich tapestry of Indian literature and honor the voices that shape our literary landscape. This event is not just about recognizing excellence; it’s also about inspiring future generations to explore the power of storytelling and the joy of reading.”

Fiction (Longlist)

• History’s Angel, by Anjum Hasan
• Never, Never Land, by Namita Gokhale
• The Memoirs of Valmiki Rao, by Lindsay Pereira
• The East Indian, by Brinda Charry
• The Gallery, by Manju Kapur
• Quarterlife, by Devika Rege
• Can’t, by Shinie Antony
• Chronicle of an Hour and a Half, by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
• Tall Tales By a Small Dog, by Omair Ahmad
• Shakchunni, by Arnab Ray

Non-fiction (Longlist)

• From Phansi Yard, by Sudha Bhardwaj
• The Day I Became a Runner, by Sohini Chattopadhyay
• City on Fire, by Zeyad Masroor Khan
• Swadeshi Steam, by  A. R. Venkatachalapathy
• A Part Apart, by Ashok Gopal
• Mother Cow Mother India, by  Yamini Narayanan
• Anger Management, by Ajay Bisaria
• Being Hindu Being Indian, by Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav
• Marginlands, by Arati Kumar-Rao
• Fire on the Ganges, by Radhika Iyengar

Translations (Longlist)

• Beneath the Simolu Tree, by Sarmishtha Pritam, tr from Assamese by Ranjita Biswas
• Boy, Unloved, by Damodar Mauzo, tr from Konkani by Jerry Pinto
• I Named My Sister Silence, by Manoj Rupda, tr from Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
• Dudiya – In Your Burning Land, by Vishwas Patil, tr from Marathi by Nadeem Khan
• Mithun Number Two, by Jayant Kaikini, tr from Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana
• Fire Bird, by Perumal Murugan, tr from Tamil by Janani Kannan
• Sakina’s Kiss, by Vivek Shanbhag, tr from Kannada by Srinath Perur
• A Woman Burnt, by Imayam, tr from Tamil by GJV Prasad
• Maria Just Maria, by Sandhya Mary, tr from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
• Fruits of the Barren Tree, by Lekhnath Chhetri, tr from Nepali by Anurag Basnet

Children’s (Longlist)

• Zen, by Shabnam Minwalla
• The Henna Start-Up, by Andaleeb Wajid
• Bipathu and a Very Big Dream, by Anita Nair
• The Case of the Vanishing Gods, by Mallika Ravikumar
• A Children’s History of India in 100 Objects, by Devika Cariapa
• Mommies, by Richa Jha and Priya Sebastian
• From Makaras to Manticores, by C. G. Salamander and Sheena Deviah
• Are There Bun Shops in the Jungles of India? and Other Secret Stories from History, by Nandini Nayar
• The Dog with Two Names: Stories that Celebrate Diversity, by Nandita Da Cunha
• The Misadventures of a Diamond Thief, by Lubaina Bandukwala

Business and Management (Longlist)

• Accelerating India’s Development: A State-led Roadmap For Effective Governance, by Karthik Muralidharan
• Al Rising: India’s Artificial Intelligence Growth Story, by Leslie D’Monte and Jayanth N. Kolla
• Exprovement: Exponential Improvements Through Converging Parallels, by Hersh Haladker and Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
• Farmer Sutra, by Kalpana Manivannan
• Inside the Boardroom: How Behaviour Trumps Rationality, by R. Gopalakrishnan and Tulsi Jayakumar
• Lilliput Land: How Small Is Driving India’s Mega Consumption Story, by Rama Bijapurkar
• Mastering the Data Paradox, by Nitin Seth
• The Eight Per Cent Solution: A Strategy for India’s Growth, by Nikhil Gupta
• Unfiltered: The CEO and the Coach, by  Ana Lueneburger and Saurabh Mukherjea
• When the Chips Are Down, by Pranay Kotasthane and Abhiram Manchi