New Delhi: The Valley of Words awards to recognise English and Hindi literature were announced on September 30, awarding fiction, non-fiction, books for young adults and books for children.
The Odd Book of Baby Names by Anees Salim won the best English fiction award and Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together by Rudrangshu Mukherjee won the best English non-fiction category. Khela by Neelakshi Singh won the best Hindi fiction category and Jeete Ji Allahabad by Mamta Kalia won the best Hindi non-fiction award.
According to a press release, over 400 nominations were received in 2022 from 37 publishing houses across the country. The longlist of ten books per category was whittled down to a final five in the shortlist and then the selection of the final winners began early this year.
Commenting on the book awards, festival director Sanjeev Chopra said the jury included Ishtiaq Ahmed (English non-fiction), 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).
Valley of Words is a one-of-a-kind, not-for-profit and volunteer-driven initiative of the Valley of Words Foundation Trust. It holds a three-day literature and arts festival during which writers, critics and listeners from the worlds of fiction, non-fiction and poetry are brought together. The finale of the 6th edition of the Valley of Words will be held on November 12 and 13 in Dehradun.
The full list of winners is below.
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)
Writing 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 (HarperCollins)
Translation to English: Amader Shantiniketan by Shivani translated by Ira Pande (Penguin Random House)