Friday, September 2, 2011

Crossword Book Awards to be announced


At or around 7.30 PM on Friday, September 2, the best-known – still - of India’s literature prizes will begin to be presented. Category by category, across five categories, the best books of 2010 – as chosen by four juries and, in one case, by popular votes – will be identified. As will the authors, translators and illustrators associated with those books. Publishers will gloat or sulk, as the case may be, and a splendid evening amongst books – such a rarity on the entertainment calendar – in Mumbai will conclude with a dinner where writers, book-publishing people and some readers will break bread and rub shoulders.

Yes, it’s time for the Annual Vodafone Crossword Books Awards once more. The brainchild of R. Sriram, the founder of the Crossword chain, the awards will be given out for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Translated Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction), Children’s Books and Popular Books. The first four will be decided by separate juries – whose identity is always kept secret till the presentation – while the fifth will be through online voting alone.

Although younger and bigger – in terms of prize money – literature prizes exist in India, the pedigree of the Crossword awards is hard to match. Decidedly more staid when it comes to razzamatazz, these awards are still anticipated the most and, arguably, discussed the most. For one thing, they’re the only ones which operate across five categories of English language publishing. For another, the combined prize money across the categories, currently amounting to Rs 13 lakh, is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Full report here IBNLive

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