New Delhi: The Kalinga Literary Festival announces the shortlisted titles in English for its prestigious annual KLF Book Awards, showcasing a diverse range of literary works across various genres. The longlist, featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, business, children’s literature, translations, and debut works, represents the best of contemporary literature. The ultimate winners announced on February 11, coinciding with the final day of the 10th Kalinga Literary Festival in Bhubaneswar.

This year’s shortlist includes notable works such as Manoj Mitta’s Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India, Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey through Opium’s Hidden Histories,’ Salman Rushdie’s ‘Victory City,’ Devika Rege’s ‘Quarterlife: A Novel,’ Ranjit Hoskote’s ‘Icelight,’ Gurcharan Das’s Another Sort of Freedom and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s ‘Breaking the Mould – Reimagining India’s Economic Future.’ These selections exemplify the rich tapestry of narratives that the KLF Book Awards aim to honor.

The KLF Book Awards are not just accolades but a celebration of the enduring power of literature to connect, inspire, and transform. As Mr. Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Founder and Director of Kalinga Literary Festival, eloquently states, “Literature is the mirror and the lamp of society – it reflects our realities and illuminates our dreams. At KLF, we strive to honor those literary works that challenge our perspectives, enrich our experiences, and elevate our understanding of the world and ourselves.”

The shortlists in each category and the eminent juries that decided the awards are as follows:

 

Here are the shortlisted books for this year’s Prize:

3rd KLF Book Awards (English)

(shortlist Announcement)

 

Non-Fiction
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey through Opium’s Hidden Histories	Amitav Ghosh	Fourth Estate India (HarperCollins Publishers India)
2	How Prime Ministers Decide	Neerja Chowdhury	Aleph Book Company
3	Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India	Manoj Mitta	Context (Westland)

 

Fiction
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Victory City	Salman Rushdie	India Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Random House India)
2	This Is Salvaged: Stories	Vauhini Vara	Fourth Estate India (HarperCollins Publishers India)
3	Quarterlife: A Novel	Devika Rege	Fourth Estate India (HarperCollins Publishers India)

 

Poetry
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Icelight	Ranjit Hoskote	India Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Random House India)
2	My Invented Land: New and Selected Poems	Robin S. Ngangom	Speaking Tiger
3	Varavara Rao: A Life In Poetry	Varavara Rao	Vintage Books (Penguin Random House India)

 

Debut
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Hurda	Atharva Pandit	Bloomsbury India
2	The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India through the Lens of Sport	Sohini Chattopadhyay	Fourth Estate India (HarperCollins India)
3	Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras	Radhika Iyengar	Fourth Estate India (HarperCollins India)

 

Children
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	When Fairyland Lost Its Magic	Bijal Vachharajani, Rajiv Eipe	Harper Children’s (HarperCollins India)
2	The People Of The Indus: And the Birth of Civilization in South Asia	Nikhil Gulati, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer	Penguin Random House India
3	Golden Tiger Mountain	Ravi Kapoor, Nicholas Hoffland	Harper Children’s (HarperCollins India)

 

Business
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Another Sort of Freedom	Gurcharan Das	India Allen Lane (Penguin Random House India)
2	Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions	Akshat Rathi	John Murray (Hachette UK)
3	Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future	Raghuram Rajan, Rohit Lamba	Penguin Business

 

Translation
Sl. No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher
1	Sakina’s Kiss	Vivek Shanbhag (Author) Srinath Perur (Translator)	Vintage Books (Penguin Random House India)
2	A Woman Burnt	Imayam (Author) GJV Prasad (Translator)	Simon & Schuster India
3	I Named My Sister Silence	Manoj Rupda (Author) Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Translator)	Eka (Westland)

 

 It should be noted that on February 9-11, 2024 – The temple city of Bhubaneswar is poised to unfurl the timeless sagas of “Legends of Ancient Bharat and Beyond: Inspiring Lived Experience in the 21st Century.”  Kalinga Literary Festival (KLF) is humbly set to embark on its 10th edition, knitting together a mosaic of diverse literary forms ranging from poetry and politics to art and athletics. The Festival’s beating heart, themed “Legends of Ancient Bharat and Beyond,” will pulse with the collective rhythm of over 400 esteemed speakers, including poets, musicians, artists, and performers. In a reverent celebration of our shared heritage, the festival aims to rekindle the flame of inspiration from our ancestors’ wisdom, demonstrating its profound relevance in today’s world.

 

About KLF Book Awards

 

Over the years, KLF has emerged as an Annual Flagship Program in the literary-cultural calendar of India with an unwavering focus to rekindle the bearing with literature and foster the culture of reading and writing, overlooking any artificially created hurdles. It offers a democratic international platform with a global appeal and bridges the gap between literature in English and other Indian languages, supremely rich with their literatures. KLF Book Awards, established by KLF in 2021 opens up the opportunities to identify, recognise, acknowledge, encourage and honour the literary talents across genres, for both established and new writers. The objective has been to shape the future literary icons. During the KLF Annual Program at Bhubaneswar, KLF Book Awards will be conferred based on the recommendations by an independent Award Jury.