VoW Book Awards 2023 Winners announced

Valley of Words has announced the winners of all eight categories of its book awards — celebrating the best of English and Hindi writing. The VoW Book Awards 2023 is currently in its seventh edition as the most comprehensive independent literary award programme in India.

25 Oct 2023 | By Dibyajyoti Sarma

Over 600 nominations were received in 2023 from 70 publishing houses across the country. The selection of the books involved a three-stage process and is indeed a tough call as the quality of submissions has become more competitive each year.

The critically-acclaimed longlist of ten books per category was brought down to a final five in the shortlist. The final winners were selected through an ongoing process which began in August this year, with the VoW Secretariate and the esteemed Jury working in tandem, for each of the eight categories. 

Festival Director Dr Sanjeev Chopra said, “I take this opportunity to thank the distinguished members of our Jury: Dr Rudranghsu Mukherjee (English non-fiction), Prof Satish Aikant (English fiction), Pooja Marwah (writings for young adults), Alka Saraogi (Hindi non-fiction), Neelakshi Singh (Hindi fiction), Mamta Nainy (writings for children), Dr Anjan Ray (translations to Hindi) and Ira Pande (translations into English) for their painstaking efforts in reading all the books and giving their recommendations.”  

He added, “The VoW book Awards are an iconic offering in the sense that each of the selected books tells a story of identity, imagination, aspiration, of times that have gone by, of issues that are contemporary, and of the future as well, including the world of Chat GPT.”

The 2023 VoW Book Award Winners 

English Fiction: No Way In by Udayan Mukherjee (Bloomsbury) 

English Non-Fiction: The Journey of Hindi Language Journalism in India by Mrinal Pande (OrientBlackSwan) 

Hindi Fiction: Shahar Se Das Kilometer by Neelesh Raghuwanshi (Rajkamal Publications)

Hindi Non-Fiction: Dinank kay Bina by Ushakiran Khan (Vani Publications) 

Writings for Young Adults: Children of the Hidden Land by Mandira Shah (Speaking Tiger)

Writings/Picture Books for Children: Jhupli's Honey Box by Achintyarup Ray (Tulika Publishers)

Translations into Hindi: Bhaaga Hua Ladka translated by Amrita Bera (Westland)

Translation into English: The Bride: The Maithili Classic Kanyadan translated by Lalit Kumar  (HarperCollins)