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The 2025 Atta Galatta–Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize named joint winners in Fiction: Santanu Bhattacharya for Deviants: The Queer Family Chronicles and Jeet Thayil for The Elsewhereans. Other awards recognized books by Srikar Raghavan, Rujuta Diwekar, Huthuka Sumi, Saisudha Acharya and Devashish Makhija, as well as illustrator Chandrima Chatterjee and cover designer Rajiv Eipe. Scroll reported the winners on December 8, 2025; the festival’s awards dispatch followed on December 15.
2025 Atta Galatta book prize winners
| Category | Winner | Winning book or contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction (joint winners) | Santanu Bhattacharya | Deviants: The Queer Family Chronicles |
| Fiction (joint winners) | Jeet Thayil | The Elsewhereans |
| Non-fiction | Srikar Raghavan | Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka |
| Popular Choice | Rujuta Diwekar | The Commonsense Diet: Stop Overthinking, Start Eating |
| Children’s Fiction | Huthuka Sumi | Giants |
| Children’s Non-Fiction | Saisudha Acharya | History Unpacked: The Why, When and What of Ancient India |
| Children’s Picture Book Story | Devashish Makhija | Go Go Flamingo |
| Children’s Picture Book Illustration | Chandrima Chatterjee | The Little Book of Indian Dogs |
| Cover Design | Rajiv Eipe | Song of the Asunam by C.G. Salamander |
The category labels above follow the festival’s prize archive. For the cover-design title, the archive styles the name as Song Of The Asunam.
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How the Fiction tie and Popular Choice were decided
The festival’s December 15 awards dispatch explains that Fiction had two winners: Bhattacharya’s Deviants: The Queer Family Chronicles and Thayil’s The Elsewhereans. It also distinguishes Popular Choice from the jury awards: Diwekar’s book was chosen through an online voting campaign, rather than by the jury.
The festival says its jury is anonymous to shortlisted authors. That distinction means the Popular Choice result reflects online voting, while the other awards are presented as jury decisions.
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What the children’s book awards recognized
The festival’s jury notes offer brief descriptions of three of the children’s winners. These are the jury’s characterizations, not independent reviews of the books.
- Giants draws on Sumi Naga folklore, culture, traditions and language, and follows Kato, a boy who cannot speak.
- History Unpacked: The Why, When and What of Ancient India is described as an interactive, humorous account intended to engage children with the past.
- The Little Book of Indian Dogs highlights native breeds, with illustrations that the jury says convey each breed’s personality.
What the award record says about the prize
The Bangalore Literature Festival’s official prize archive says the annual award was instituted in 2015 and lists Literary Achievement in Kannada among its award categories. It also says winners receive an original trophy called “Thought Beyond Words.”
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The archive describes nine categories, while the festival’s ceremony dispatch says awards are distributed across eight categories. The official pages do not explain the difference, so the totals should not be treated as interchangeable.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Publisher credit for Srikar Raghavan’s winning book
The official prize archive credits Context as publisher of Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka. Scroll’s December 8 report credits Westland Publishing. The winner, author and title agree, but the publisher attribution conflicts; the award archive is the primary record for the prize result.
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Sources
- Bangalore Literature Festival: Atta Galatta Book Prize archive
- Bangalore Literature Festival: 2025 awards dispatch
- Scroll: report on the 2025 winners, December 8, 2025
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