On October 16, the eagerly awaited shortlists for the prestigious Tata Literature Live! Literary Awards were unveiled.
These awards, a highlight of the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest are bestowed annually to commend noteworthy books published during the year. The primary objective is to acknowledge and foster literary excellence across diverse genres, catering to both seasoned and emerging writers.
The much-anticipated announcement of the winners is scheduled for the grand finale of the festival, set to take place on Sunday, October 29, starting at 8 pm in the illustrious Tata Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai.
The shortlists in each category (in alphabetical order), and the juries that decided the awards, are as follows:
Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year – Fiction Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
- Everything The Light Touches by Janice Pariat (HarperCollins Publishers)
- The Education Of Yuri by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger Books)
- The Secret Of More by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm (Aleph Book Company)
Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year – Non-Fiction Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
- Raw Umber by Sara Rai (Westland Books)
- The Song Of The Cell: An exploration of medicine and the new human by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Penguin Random House India)
- Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The many lives of Agyeya by Akshaya Mukul (Penguin Random House India)
Tata Literature Live! First Book Award – Fiction Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
- Shurjo’s Clan by Iffat Nawaz (Penguin Random House India)
- The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (HarperCollins Publishers)The Woman Who Climbed Trees by Smriti Ravindra (HarperCollins Publishers)
Tata Literature Live! First Book Award Non – Fiction Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
- Courting India: England, Mughal India and the origins of Empire by Nandini Das (Bloomsbury India)
- Marginlands: Indian landscapes on the brink by Arati Kumar-Rao (Pan Macmillan India/Picador)
- Vajpayee: The ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924-1977 by Abhishek Choudhary (Pan Macmillan India/Picador)
Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
- Against All Odds: The IT story of India by S. Gopalakrishnan, N. Dayasindhu, Krishnan Narayan (Penguin Random House India)
- The Tech Phoenix: Satyam’s 100-day turnaround by T.N. Manoharan, V. Pattabhi Ram (Rupa Publications)
- Working To Restore: Why we do business in the regenerative era by Esha Chhabra (Penguin Random House India)
Juries for the awards:
Each award category is decided by an eminent jury. The juries for 2023 were as follows:
Fiction:
- Anuja Chauhan, author
- Anirudh Kanisetti, author
- Deepa Gahlot, columnist, critic and author
- Shireen Quadri, publisher and columnist
- Shireen Mistry, associate festival director, Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest
Non-Fiction:
- Arun Katiyar, communications consultant and author
- Deepika Sorabjee, head, arts & culture, Tata Trusts
- Sanjukta Sharma, author and columnist
- Taran N Khan, journalist and author
- Tina Nagpaul, filmmaker and associate festival director, Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest
Business:
- Khozem Merchant, columnist and business leader
- Poornima Dore, economist and business leader
- Ruchira Chaudhary, author, consultant and executive coach
- Shilpa Kumar, business leader and impact investor
- Tamal Bandyopadhyay, columnist and author
The festival is scheduled to take place online from October 25-26, followed by on-ground events from October 27-29 at various prominent venues, including the NCPA at Nariman Point, St. Paul’s Institute of Communication Education in Bandra, and Title Waves bookstore in Bandra.
