Shanta Gokhale, Twinkle Khanna, Madhuri Vijay, Gaur Gopal Das bag top honours at the 17th edition of Crossword Book Awards!
Mumbai: It was an evening of celebrating literature and authors who made a mark in the year gone by owing to their writing prowess. The 17th Edition of the Crossword Book Awards, held at Crossword Bookstores, Kemps Corner on 14th January 2020, saw the best literary talents being awarded for their outstanding published works. The evening was graced by popular authors such as Twinkle Khanna, Gaur Gopal Das and Sudha Murty, among others.
An accomplished jury of twelve members including author Janice Pariat, literary critic Somak Ghoshal, culture editor Vivek Tejuja, writer and blogger Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan and Rohan Narayana Murty, founder of Murty Classical Library, had selected a shortlist of truly fabulous writing in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, Indian language translation, and children’s writing.
The jury named Madhuri Vijay the winner in the Fiction category for her book 'The Far Field', and Shanta Gokhale in the Non-fiction category for her book 'One Foot on the Ground: A Life Told Through the Body. Richa Jha (Author, Editor) & Sumanta Dey (Illustrator) won for their children''s book 'MachherJhol: Fish Curry', whereas Jayasree Kalathil & N Prabhakaran bagged the best book in the Indian Language Translation category for Diary of a Malayali Madman.
The popular category saw some fierce competition with the likes of Twinkle Khanna, Raghuram Rajan, Shashi Tharoor, Amish Tripathi and Durjoy Dutta vying for the awards across various categories. Twinkle Khanna won in the Fiction category for her book Pyjamas Are Forgiving, while Gaur Gopal Das walked away with the best book title in the Non-fiction category for Life's Amazing Secrets: How to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life. For her valuable insights in the Business & Management category, Anju Sharma’s Corporate Monk, A Journey From Wealth To Wisdom was conferred with the best book award. Writing a biography requires an individual to deep-dive into the life of his subject. For his in-depth study and analysis of A.R. Rahman, Krishna Trilok was handed the trophy in the Biography category for Notes of a Dream: The Authorized Biography of A.R. Rahman. Sudha Murty won for her children's book The Upside-Down King: Unusual Tales about Rama and Krishna, whereas Dr Jaishree Sharad bagged the best book in the Health & Fitness category for Skin Rules: Your 6-week Plan to Radiant Skin.
Gracing the award for popular fiction, an elated Twinkle Khanna said, “Thank you Crossword Bookstores for this award. I'd like to say that writers need to have an inflated sense of self-worth to feel that their work is worthy of someone else's attention and then look at their work objectively. Listen to yourself, create your suggestions and incorporate them. My book has been possible because of three extremely important people - Sarita Tanwar, Neelam Raaj and of course Chikki Sarkar. This award is theirs as much as it's mine. So here's a shout-out to them in making Pyjamas are Forgiving, an award winning book.”
Commenting on the awards, Chiragh Oberoi, CEO, Crossword Bookstore said, “The Crossword Book Awards is a platform that aims to give Indian authors and books a launch pad to promote themselves in addition to recognizing good writing. At Crossword Bookstores, our endeavour is to constantly bring forth avenues to engage people with diverse literature that appeals to their reading habits. We’re extremely proud to give writers– young and seasoned alike, a platform to express themselves and further the practice of literature as self-expression.”
Hemali Sodhi, Director, Crossword Book Award said, “It has been a great year for Indian writing in English, and this year’s Crossword Book Awards reflect this richness and diversity. I’d like to congratulate all the winners as well as the authors featured across the ten categories. Thanks also to the jury who had the task of choosing a winner from the extraordinary array of entries, as well as to all readers who made their vote count in the popular categories. This has been an incredibly exciting and enriching journey and we hope these wonderful books will continue to find many readers”
Exclusively Indian and inclusive in every other sense, the Crossword Book Awards brings together the entire literary community - readers, authors, booksellers and publishers.
