The Kalinga Literary Festival has announced the shortlists for its 2026 Book Awards in five categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translation, and Debut. The winners will be announced in September 2026 and awards will be presented at the inaugural ceremony of KLF Indraprastha between October 3 and 4.
Here are the complete shortlists:
Nonfiction
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Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, Vauhini Vara
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The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, Anand Teltumbde
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Scamlands: Inside the Asian Empire of Fraud That Preys on the World, Snigdha Poonam
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Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy
Fiction
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Great Eastern Hotel, Ruchir Joshi
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The Elsewhereans, Jeet Thayil
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The Beast Within, Rudraneil Sengupta
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Absolute Jafar, Sarnath Banerjee
Poetry
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The City under the City, John Kinsella and Jeet Thayil
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So That You Know, Mani Rao
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My Life Closed Twice, Subhashini Kaligotla
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Folie à Deux, Jennifer Robertson
Translation
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Mudritha, Jissa Jose, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
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Tiger Lessons, Sannapureddy Venkatarami Reddy, translated from Telugu by Narasimha Kumar;
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Nowhere People, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from Bengali by Anchita Ghatak
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Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
Debut
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The World With Its Mouth Open, Zahid Rafiq
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The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past, Sowmiya Ashok
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Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, Sam Dalrymple
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The Map Is Not the Territory: Poems, Aranya Padil
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