 "Valley of Words Book Awards: 'Tagore & Gandhi' wins in English non-fiction")
Anees Salim’s The Odd Book of Baby Names (English fiction) and Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together (English non-fiction) were among the eight that were adjudged the best books of the year at the ‘Valley of Words Book Awards’ on Friday. The PFC-VoW Book Awards, currently in its sixth edition, is considered one of the most comprehensive independent literary award programmes in India.
For 2022, over 400 nominations were received from 37 publishing houses across the country. The critically acclaimed longlist of 10 books per category was brought down to a final five in the shortlist and then the selection of the final winners was done by an esteemed jury of eight – one member for each of the eight categories. The members were Ishtiaq Ahmed (English Non-Fiction), Surekha Dangwal (English Fiction), Menaka Raman (Writings for Young Adults), Rajeev Sharma (Hindi Non-Fiction), Alka Saraogi (Hindi Fiction), Paro Anand (Writings for Children), Padmaja Ghorpade (Translations to Hindi) and Ranjita Biswas (Translations into English).
Festival Director Sanjeev Chopra said: “The selection of the books involves a three-stage process, and is indeed a tough call as the quality of submissions becomes more competitive each year.”
Here’s the full list of the PFC-VoW Book Award winners for 2022:
English fiction: The Odd Book of Baby Names by Anees Salim (Penguin Random House)
English non-fiction: Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together by Rudrangshu Mukherjee (Aleph Book Company)
Hindi fiction: Khela by Neelakshi Singh (Setu Publications)
Hindi non- fiction: Jeete Ji Allahabad by Mamta Kalia (Rajkamal Prakashan)
Writings for young adults: Savi and the Memory Keeper by Bijal Vachharajani (Hachette)
Writings/picture books for children: Aai and I by Mamta Nainy (Pickle Yolk Books)
Translation to Hindi: Yaadon Ke Bikhre Moti: Batware ki Kahaniyan by Aanchal Malhotra, translated by Brig Kamal Nayan Pandit (HarperCollins)
Translation to English: Amader Shantiniketan by Shivani, translated by Ira Pande (Penguin Random House)
For 2022, over 400 nominations were received from 37 publishing houses across the country. The critically acclaimed longlist of 10 books per category was brought down to a final five in the shortlist and then the selection of the final winners was done by an esteemed jury of eight – one member for each of the eight categories. The members were Ishtiaq Ahmed (English Non-Fiction), Surekha Dangwal (English Fiction), Menaka Raman (Writings for Young Adults), Rajeev Sharma (Hindi Non-Fiction), Alka Saraogi (Hindi Fiction), Paro Anand (Writings for Children), Padmaja Ghorpade (Translations to Hindi) and Ranjita Biswas (Translations into English).
Festival Director Sanjeev Chopra said: “The selection of the books involves a three-stage process, and is indeed a tough call as the quality of submissions becomes more competitive each year.”
Here’s the full list of the PFC-VoW Book Award winners for 2022:
English fiction: The Odd Book of Baby Names by Anees Salim (Penguin Random House)
English non-fiction: Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together by Rudrangshu Mukherjee (Aleph Book Company)
Hindi fiction: Khela by Neelakshi Singh (Setu Publications)
Hindi non- fiction: Jeete Ji Allahabad by Mamta Kalia (Rajkamal Prakashan)
Writings for young adults: Savi and the Memory Keeper by Bijal Vachharajani (Hachette)
Writings/picture books for children: Aai and I by Mamta Nainy (Pickle Yolk Books)
Translation to Hindi: Yaadon Ke Bikhre Moti: Batware ki Kahaniyan by Aanchal Malhotra, translated by Brig Kamal Nayan Pandit (HarperCollins)
Translation to English: Amader Shantiniketan by Shivani, translated by Ira Pande (Penguin Random House)
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