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The Banaras Lit Fest announced its 2025 Book Awards shortlists on 9 February 2025: five books in each of four categories in English and Hindi. The lists cover fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation. The festival has since published the winners, so the results below include both the original shortlists and the confirmed 2025 winners.
English-language shortlist
Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry
- To the Moon and Back: Life, Love and Everything In-between — Maria Goretti (Om Book International)
- Nostalgia: Crafting a Home Within — Mahua Sen (Red River)
- White Shirts of Summer: New and Selected Poems — Mamang Dai (Speaking Tiger)
- My Body Didn’t Come Before Me: Poems — Kuhu Joshi (Speaking Tiger)
- I’ll Have It Here: Poems — Jeet Thayil (HarperCollins)
Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction
- The Patient in Bed Number 12 — Raj Kamal Jha (Penguin)
- Aunties of Vasant Kunj — Anuradha Marwah (Rupa)
- Deccan Queen: Take Two — Farrukh Dhondy (Om Book International)
- The Woman Who Climbed Trees — Smriti Ravindra (HarperCollins)
- Never Never Land — Namita Gokhale (Speaking Tiger)
Rabindranath Tagore Award for Translation
- Fire Bird — Perumal Murugan, translated by Janani Kannan (Penguin)
- The Keeper of Desolation: Stories — Chandan Pandey, translated by Sayari Debnath (HarperCollins)
- I Named My Sister Silence — Manoj Rupda, translated by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Eka, Westland Books)
- Sakina’s Kiss — Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur (Penguin)
- Boy, Unloved — Damodar Mauzo, translated by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Non-Fiction
- Fire on the Ganges: Life Among Dead in Banaras — Radhika Iyengar (HarperCollins)
- Bharat Rising: Dharma, Democracy and Diplomacy — Utpal Kumar (BlueOne Ink)
- The Jannayak Karpoori Thakur: Voice of the Voiceless — Santosh Singh and Aditya Anmol (Penguin)
- How Prime Ministers Decide — Neerja Chowdhury (Aleph)
- Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum (1760-1799) — Vikram Sampath (Vintage Books)
Hindi-language shortlist
Kabir Award for Poetry
- Kuch Bhi Waisa Nahi — Uma Shankar Chaudhary (Radha Krishna Prakashan)
- Atmadroha — R. Chetankranti (Rajkamal Prakashan)
- Neeli Bayaaz — Adnan Kafeel Darwesh (Rajkamal Prakashan)
- Fir Ugana — Parwati Tirkey (Radha Krishna Prakashan)
- Morche Par Vidageet — Vihag Vaibhav (Rajkamal Prakashan)
Rahul Sankrityayan Award for Non-Fiction
- Gay-Geka Ki Auratein — Joram Yalam Nabam (Radha Krishna Prakashan)
- Allah Naam Ki Siyasat — Hilal Ahmed (Setu Prakashan)
- Itihas Mein Afwah — Shambhunath (Vani Prakashan)
- Garjiyanta — Vyomesh Shukla (Rukh Prakashan)
- Borsi Bhar Aanch — Yatish Kumar (Radha Krishna Prakashan)
Premchand Award for Fiction
- Agam Bahai Dariyav — Shivmurti (Rajkamal Prakashan)
- Aushwitz: Ek Prem Katha — Garima Srivastav (Vani Prakashan)
- Trin Dhari Ot — Anamika (Vani Prakashan)
- Humnawai Na Thi — Tasneem Khan (Setu Prakashan)
- Chakka Jaam — Gautam Choubey (Radha Krishna Prakashan)
Mahadevi Verma Award for Translation
- Baraf Mahal — Tarjei Vesos, translated by Neelakshi Singh (Setu Prakashan)
- Azadi — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, translated by Naved Akbar (Harper Hindi)
- Naye Bharat Kee Deemak Lagi Shahteeren — Parakala Prabhakar, translated by Vyalok Pathak (Rajkamal Prakashan)
- Satrangi Dastarkhwan — Sumana Roy and Kunal Ray, translated by Vandana Rag and Geet Chaturvedi (Rajkamal Prakashan)
- Great Kanchana Circus — Vishwas Patil, translated by Ravi Bule (Vani Prakashan)
Who won the 2025 awards?
The festival’s awards page records the following winners among the English-language categories: Raj Kamal Jha for fiction with The Patient in Bed Number 12; Vikram Sampath for nonfiction with Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore’s Interregnum (1760–1799); Jeet Thayil for poetry with I’ll Have It Here: Poems; and Sayari Debnath for translation of Chandan Pandey’s The Keeper of Desolation: Stories.
For Hindi, the page names Garima Srivastava’s Auschwitz: Ek Prem Katha as the fiction winner and Vyomesh Shukla’s Guardianship (Garjiyanta) as the nonfiction winner. The winners are distinct from the complete shortlist above; the awards page’s current material also includes later editions.
Announcement, prize and festival dates
The Indian Express reported that the shortlists were announced on 9 February 2025 and that each winner would receive ₹51,000, a certificate and a trophy. Its report said winners would be announced at a 23 February curtain-raiser at PHDCCI House in New Delhi; that was the planned announcement at the time, not a future event.
#1 Best Overall
The festival archive lists the 2025 Banaras Lit Fest as taking place 7–9 March at Taj Ganges in Varanasi. The three-day programme included a book fair, poetry sessions, book launches, discussions and award felicitation. The shortlist report lists five titles in every category covered here; it does not give comparative judging criteria, so the shortlist should not be read as a ranking.
Quick Recap
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Rank #3
Rank #2
Sources
- The Indian Express: Banaras Literature Fest book awards 2025 shortlist — category lists, announcement date, prize and festival statements.
- Banaras Lit Fest archive — 2025 festival dates, venue and programme context.
- Banaras Lit Fest awards — published 2025 winner results.
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