Crossword book award nominees announced

Crossword released its shortlist for the Vodafone-Crossword Book Award 2009 on July 2, but held back the announcement in the fiction category.

The shortlist was announced at a ceremony at the ML Bhartia Auditorium at Delhi's Alliance Francaise Friday evening. Notable for his absence was former CEO R Sriram, who, it was said, was unable to come due to an important "business meeting". A fact quickly glossed over by the evening's panel discussion moderator, Urvashi Butalia, who made the announcement.

Shortlists for three categories were announced. It was also announced that the fiction shortlist would be reveled on July 9, when the information would be mailed to the publishers.

A new category, children's books was added to the categories this year, taking the total number of categories to four. The winner will recieve Rs 3 lakhs.

The award ceremony will be held in Mumbai next month.

A panel discussion on children's books took the better part of the evening. Besides Butalia, the panelists were VK Karthika, editor in chief at HarperCollins India, writer and illustrator Manjula Padmanabhan and writer and publisher Namita Gokhale.

The function was attended by representatives of various publishers, including Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, Scholastic and Hachette.

The shortlists:
Non-fiction 
Violence, Martyrdom and Partition by Nonica Datta
Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom by Rajni Bakshi
The Difficulty of being good – On The Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das
Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India by Sunanda K. Datta- Ray
Baulsphere by Mimlu Sen
The Bakkarwals of Jammu & Kashmir by Anita Sharma
Bollywood In Posters by S M M Ausaja

Translation 
Othappu by Valson Thampu, translated by Sarah Joseph
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose, translated by Arunava Sinha
The Hour before Dawn by Bhabendra Nath Saikia, translated by Maitreyi S. C
The Hour Past Midnight by Salma, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom.

Children
The Beast with Nine Billion Feet by Anil Menon
The Magic Store of Nu- Cham Vu by Shreekumar Varma
103 Journeys, Voyages, Trips and Stuff by Siddhartha Sarma
Taranauts: The Quest for the Shyn Emeralds by Roopa Pai
The Grasshopper's Run by Siddhartha Sarma