By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 30 Sep: Valley of Words, today, announced the winners of all eight categories of its Book Awards – celebrating the best of English Literature and Hindi Sahitya. The PFC-VoW Book Awards are currently in their sixth edition as the most comprehensive independent literary award programme in India.
Over 400 nominations were received in 2022 from 37 publishing houses across the country. The critically-acclaimed longlist of ten books per category was brought down to a final five in the shortlist and then the selection of the final winners took place as part of an ongoing process which began early this year, with an esteemed Jury for each of the eight categories.
Commenting on the Book Awards, Festival Director Dr Sanjeev Chopra said, “The selection of the books involves a three-stage process, and is indeed a tough call as the quality of submissions becomes more competitive each year. I take this opportunity to thank the distinguished members of our Jury: Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed (English Non-Fiction), Prof Surekha Dangwal (English Fiction), Menaka Raman (Writings for Young Adults), Rajeev Sharma (Hindi Non-Fiction), Alka Saraogi (Hindi Fiction), Paro Anand (Writings for Children), Padmaja Ghorpade (Translations to Hindi) and Ranjita Biswas (Translations into English) for their painstaking efforts in reading all the books and giving their recommendations.”
The PFC-VoW Book Award Winners for 2022 are: English Fiction – The Odd Book of Baby Names by Anees Salim (Penguin Random House); English Non-Fiction – Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, (Aleph Book Company); Hindi Fiction – Khela by Neelakshi Singh, (Setu Publications); Hindi Non-Fiction – Jeete Ji Allahabad by Mamta Kalia, (Rajkamal Prakashan); Writings for Young Adults – Savi and the Memory Keeper by Bijal Vachharajani, (Hachette); Writings/Picture Books for Children – Aai and I by Mamta Nainy
(Pickle Yolk Books); Translation to Hindi –
Yaadon Ke Bikhre Moti: Batware ki Kahaniyan by Aanchal Malhotra translated by Brig Kamal Nayan Pandit, (Harper Collins); Translation to English –
Amader Shantiniketan by Shivani translated by Ira Pande, (Penguin Random House).
The finale of the 6th Edition of Valley of Words will be held on 12 -13 November in Dehradun.
