Mumbai: The longlists for the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards for Fiction, Non-Fiction and Business are out! The awards aim to recognise and encourage literary talent across these genres, among both established and new writers. The awards are one of the highlights of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest and the winners will be named at the Festival’s finale on 17 November.
The Longlists in each category and the eminent juries that decided the awards are as follows:
Godrej Literature Live! Fiction Book of the Year Longlist (in alphabetical order)
1. History’s Angel by Anjum Hasan (Bloomsbury India)
2. Hurda by Atharva Pandit (Bloomsbury India)
3. Loot by Tania James (Penguin Random House India)
4. The Lady on the Horse and Other Secrets by Ramona Sen (Speaking Tiger)
5. The Memoirs of Valmiki Rao by Lindsay Pereira (Penguin Random House India)
6. The Witch in the Peepul Tree by Arefa Tehsin (HarperCollins Publishers)
Indian educator, author, and philanthropist Sudha Murthy
Godrej Literature Live! Non-Fiction Book of the Year Longlist (in alphabetical order)
1. A Walk Up The Hill: Living with People and Nature by Madhav Gadgil (Penguin Random House India)
2. Gujarat Under Modi: The Blueprint for Today’s India by Christophe Jaffrelot (Context/ Westland Books)
3. Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary by Yuvan Aves (Bloomsbury India)
4. Love In the Time of Hate: In the Mirror of Urdu by Rakhshanda Jalil (Simon & Schuster India)
5. The Cobra’s Gaze: Exploring India’s Wild Heritage by Stephen Alter (Aleph Book Company)
6. Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan (Hachette India)
Godrej Literature Live! Fiction Best First Book Longlist (in alphabetical order)
1. Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari (Context / Westland Books)
2. Cockatoo by Yashraj Goswami (Pan Macmillan India)
3. General Firebrand and His Red Atlas by Tathagata Bhattacharya (Seagull Books)
4. Hurda by Atharva Pandit (Bloomsbury India)
5. The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella (Penguin Random House India)
6. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (Picador/Pan Macmillan India)
Godrej Literature Live! Non-Fiction Best First Book Longlist (in alphabetical order)
1. Airplane Mode: A Passive-Aggressive History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib (Context/ Westland Books)
2. Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood by Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav (Penguin Random House India)
3. Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras by Radhika Iyengar (HarperCollins Publishers India)
4. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada by Sudha Bharadwaj (Juggernaut Books)
5. H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars by Kunal Purohit (HarperCollins Publishers India)
6. The Great Flap of 1942: How the Raj Panicked over a Japanese Non-invasion by Mukund Padmanabhan (Penguin Random House India)
Godrej Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Longlist (in alphabetical order)
1. AI Rising: India’s Artificial Intelligence Growth Story by Leslie D’Monte & Jayanth Kolla (Jaico Publishing House)
2. Lilliput Land: How Small is Driving India’s Mega Consumption Story by Rama Bijapurkar (Penguin Random House India)
3. The Last Dance of Rationality: Making Sense of an Unravelling World Order by Rohit Prasad (Hachette India)
4. The Learning Trap: How Byju’s Took Indian Edtech for a Ride by Pradip K. Saha (Juggernaut Books)
5. The Tanishq Story: Inside India’s No. 1 Jewellery Brand by C.K. Venkataraman (Juggernaut Books)
6. The Unicorn Quest: India Learns to Start Up by Archana Rai (Bloomsbury India)
Juries for the awards:
Each award category is decided by an eminent jury. The juries for 2024 were as follows:
Fiction:
Deepa Adhikari, Social Entrepreneur and Development Communications Consultant
Priyanka Sarkar, Editor, Translator and Writer
Rajrishi Singhal, Author, Journalist, Banker and Policy Analyst / Consultant
Usha Subramaniam, Former Professor of English Literature and Freelance Commentator
Shireen Mistry, Associate Festival Director, Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest
Non-Fiction:
Abhay Sardesai, Editor, Educator, Writer and Translator
Chandrahas Choudhury, Writer and Author
Kalpana Sharma, Journalist, Columnist and Author
Sudhakar Solomonraj, Professor, Author and Environmentalist
Tina Nagpaul, Filmmaker and Associate Festival Director, Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest
Business:
Charles Assisi, Journalist, Columnist, Author and Entrepreneur
Karthi Marshan, Industry Leader, Entrepreneur and Copywriter
Saira Menezes, Editor and Journalist
Sunita Wazir, HR and Leadership Development Professional
Suresh Seshadri, Editor, Journalist and Business Professional
Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest will be held from 15-17 November 2024 at the NCPA at Nariman Point.