Banaras Lit Fest names longlist for its 2026 book awards

The Banaras Lit Fest has announced the longlist for the second edition of the Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards, recognising outstanding literary works published in 2025 across multiple genres and languages.

The awards honour excellence in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and translation, celebrating both authors and translators for their contributions to India’s diverse and evolving literary landscape. The longlist brings together established literary figures and emerging voices, reflecting the depth and dynamism of contemporary Indian writing.

The awards are presented across English and Hindi categories, including the Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction, Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Non-Fiction, Rabindranath Tagore Award for Translation, Premchand Award for Fiction, Kabir Award for Poetry, Rahul Sankrityayan Award for Non-Fiction, and the Mahadevi Verma Award for Translation.

The World With Its Mouth Open — Zahid Rafiq Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains — Subi Taba Muses Over Mumbai — Murzban S. Shroff The Elsewherians: A Documentary — Jeet Thayil Our Friends in Good Houses — Rahul Pandita Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith — Shinie Antony The Tiger’s Share — Keshava Guha The Burnings — Himanjali Sankar Mrs Happily Single — Shubha Sarma A Fatal Distraction — Samyukta Bhowmick

Father Tongue, Motherland — Peggy Mohan The Call of Music — Priya Purushothaman Learning from Silence — Pico Iyer Candle in the Wind — Sharmishtha Shenoy The Fall of Kabul — Nayanima Basu Story of an Unknown Indian — Neha Dixit Shattered Lands — Sam Dalrymple Believer’s Dilemma — Abhishek Choudhary Charles Correa: Citizen Charles — Mustansir Dalvi Song of the Clay Pot — Sumana Chandrashekar

Limited / Unlimited — Sankar, translated by Arunava Sinha This Place of Mud and Bone — Sanjay Bista, translated by Anurag Basnet The Dead Fish — Rajkamal Choudhary, translated by Mahua Sen The Owl, the River, the Valley — Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Mitra Phukan Caste Away — Na. Vanamamalai, translated by Joshua Gnanaselvan Whose Urdu Is It Anyway? — Rakhshanda Jalil Lootaloot — Baburao Bagul, translated by Manav Kambli The Madhouse: Pagalkhana — Gyan Chaturvedi, translated by Punarvasu Joshi The Divine Sword — Rita Chowdhury, translated from Assamese by Reeta Borbora Shabnam — Syed Mujtaba Ali, translated by Nazes Afros

Gandhi ke Bahane — Parag Mandale Hindi Sahitya ke 75 Varsh — Sudhir Pachauri Bhakti ka Lokvritt aur Ravidas — Shriprakash Shukla Yaadon ke Shilalekh — Suryabala Yoon Guzri Hai Ab Talak — Seema Kapoor Jab Se Aankh Khuli Hai — Leeladhar Mandloi Thakurbari — Animesh Mukherjee Kisani ki Kahani — Sorit Gupto Dukh ki Duniya Bheetar Hai — J. Sushil News Channelon ka Jantantra — Anand Pradhan

Sabhyata ke Kone — Ramachandra Guha, translated by Anil Maheshwari Jaag Tujhko Door Jana — Namita Gokhale, translated by Aishwarya Kumar Ambedkar: A Life — Shashi Tharoor, translated by Amresh Dwivedi Charu, Cheevar aur Charya — Pradeep Dash, translated by Sujata Shiven The Revolt of 1857 in Awadh — Thomas Henry Kavanagh, translated by Rajgopal Singh Verma Forgotten Heroes of Banaras: Babu Jagat Singh — H. A. Qureshi and Shreya Pathak, translated by Shaan Kashyap Apni Dhun Mein: An Autobiography — Ruskin Bond, translated by Prabhat Singh How Democracies Die — Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, translated by Abhishek Srivastava Why Can’t Elephants Be Red? — Vani Tripathi Tikoo, translated by Aditi Maheshwari-Goyal Sameer: A Journey with Words — Derek Bose, translated by Prabhat Milind

The shortlist will be announced on January 17, 2026. Winners will be announced on January 21, 2026, with each receiving a cash prize of 51,000 rupees, a trophy and a certificate, to be presented during the festival.

For more information, visit the official Banaras Lit Fest website or follow the festival on social media platforms.