Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest announces longlists for five coveted Book Awards


Mumbai, November 3, 2016: Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest today announced the longlists for five of its ten literary awards. The seventh edition of the festival will be held from November 17 to 20, 2016, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point (Nov 17-Nov 20) and simultaneously at the Prithvi Theatre, Juhu (Nov 19 and Nov 20).

Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest announces longlists for five coveted Book Awards


Today, the longlisted nominees were declared for the esteemed Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for Fiction and Non-Fiction, the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award for Fiction and Non-Fiction and the Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Award. These awards endeavour to recognise and promote literary talent across genres of literature, including distinguished and emerging writers alike. The winners will be announced during the grand Awards Ceremony to be held on November 20th, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).



Tata Literature Live! First Book Award

The Tata Literature Live! First Book Award recognises new talent in the Indian literary space across the fiction and non-fiction genres.

In the Fiction category, the longlisted nominees are (in alphabetical order):

Sr. No.
Book
Author
Publishing House
1.
Belonging

Umi Sinha
Speaking Tiger Books
2.
Neon Noon

Tanuj Solanki
HarperCollins
3.
Savithri’s Special Room

Manu Bhattathiri
HarperCollins
4.
Swimmer Among the Stars

Kanishk Tharoor
Aleph Book Company
5.
The High Priestess Never Marries

Sharanya Manivannan
HarperCollins
6.
The Village of Pointless Conversation

Kersi Khambatta
HarperCollins


In the Non-Fiction category, the longlisted nominees are (in alphabetical order):

Sr. No.
Book
Author
Publishing House
1.
Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court
Audrey Truschke
Penguin Random House
2.
Framed as a Terrorist: My 14-year Struggle to Prove My Innocence
Mohammad Aamir Khan with Nandita Haksar
Speaking Tiger Books
3.
Half-Lion: How Narasimha Rao Transformed India
Vinay Sitapati
Penguin Random House
4.
Mother, Where's My Country? Looking for Light in the Darkness of Manipur
Anubha Bhonsle
Speaking Tiger Books
5.
The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore
Manu S Pillai
HarperCollins
6.
This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault Lines
Barkha Dutt
Aleph Book Company


Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

The Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award has been constituted to recognise noteworthy work in the Indian literary space across the fiction and non-fiction genres.

In the Fiction category, the longlisted nominees are (in alphabetical order):

Sr. No.
Book
Author
Publishing House
1.
All Quiet in Vikaspuri
Sarnath Banerjee
HarperCollins
2.
Jihadi Jane
Tabish Khair
Penguin Random House
3.
Jinnah Often Came to our House
Kiran Doshi
Westland
4.
Selection Day
Aravind Adiga
HarperCollins
5.
The Association of Small Bombs
Karan Mahajan
HarperCollins
6.
The Private Life of Mrs Sharma
Ratika Kapur
Bloomsbury Publishing

In the Non-Fiction category, the longlisted nominees are (in alphabetical order):

Sr. No.
Book
Author
Publishing House
1.
A Life in Shadow: The Secret Story of A.C.N. Nambiar, The Mysterious Anti-Colonial Hero 
Vappala  Balachandran 
Roli Books
2.
A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India 
Josy Joseph
HarperCollins
3.
India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia 1939-1945
Srinath Raghavan
Penguin Random House
4.
No One Else: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex
Siddharth Dube
HarperCollins
5.
The Gene: An Intimate History
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Penguin Random House
6.
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh
Penguin Random House

Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Award

The Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Award recognises the best business writing in the Indian literary space.

The longlisted books for the 2016 awards are (in alphabetical order):

Sr. No.
Book
Author
Publishing House
1.
Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization
Parag Khanna
Hachette
2.
Grassroots Innovation: Minds on the Margin Are Not Marginal Minds
Anil K Gupta
Penguin Random House
3.
Office Chai, Planter's Brew
S Muthiah & Ranjitha Ashok
Westland
4.
Own It: Leadership Lessons from Women Who Do
Aparna Jain
HarperCollins

5.
Six Lenses: Vignettes of Success, Career and Relationships
R Gopalakrishnan
Rupa Publications
6.
The Golden Tap: The Inside Story of Hyper-Funded Indian Startups
Kashyap Deorah
Roli Books
7.
The Unusual Billionaires
Saurabh Mukherjea 
Penguin Random House

Jury for the awards

Each award category is presided over by an eminent jury.

This year, the Fiction categories for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award and Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award were judged by Indira Chandrashekhar, founder-editor of Out of Print; Paromita Vohra, writer and film-maker; Shefali Balsari Shah, former head, English Department, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai; Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, author, and Anil Dharker, author, columnist, and founder-director, Literature Live!

The Non-Fiction categories for the aforementioned awards were judged by Akshaya Mukul, senior journalist; Dileep Padgaonkar, political observer and specialist in international affairs; Sidharth Bhatia, founding editor of The Wire; Santosh Desai, author, brand consultant and social commentator, and Anil Dharker.

The esteemed jury for the Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Award comprised Harish Bhat, author, marketer, and a Tata leader; Leo Puri, managing director of UTI Asset Management; Mihir S Sharma, senior journalist; Rama Bijapurkar, management and market research consultant, and Ravi Venkatesan, author and philanthropist.
The Tata Literature Live! Poet Laureate Award and the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Awards will be announced shortly.

The festival this year has introduced three new awards – the Big Little Book Awards for Author and Illustrator in the Literature-for-children category, and the Sultan Padamsee Award for Playwriting, which will also be announced during the Awards Ceremony.


Entry to the festival will be free and on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Tata group is the title sponsor of Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest and Landmark is the book store partner.

The festival is conceived by Anil Dharker, the Founder and Festival Director of Literature Live!, which organises the festival with the support of the Tata group.


About the Tata group:
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100 independent operating companies. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust. Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture. In 2015-16, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $103 billion. These companies collectively employ over 660,000 people. Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors and shareholders. There are 29 publicly-listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of about $116 billion (as on March 31, 2016). Tata companies with significant scale include Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels.

About Literature Live!
Literature Live! is dedicated to celebrating the written word in all its glorious forms. From book launches, thought-provoking talks, literary evenings and author interactions to performances, book swaps, fiction and haiku contests, it offers Mumbai a chance to participate in the many joys of literature. It also organises Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, Mumbai's premier international literary festival. Now gearing up for its 7thedition from November 17th to November 20th, 2016. Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai International LitFest has become immensely popular because it looks at literature in a way that complements the spirit of Mumbai: energetic, cosmopolitan and all-inclusive. Over 130 writers, thinkers and performers from all over the world are expected to participate during its many events this year at the National Centre for Performing Arts and the Prithvi Theatre.