Crossword Book Awards 2009 announced

Indian Literary Excellence took center stage at the ‘Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award 2009’ as the best writers and their books were honoured at NCPA on Friday, August 20, 2010. This year the awards in the Fiction category is won by Kalpana Swaminathan for the book Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories, Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India by author Sunanda K. Datta- Ray and  Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom by author Rajni Bakshi have jointly won in the Non-Fiction category, Siddhartha Sarma for the book The Grasshopper’s Run has won in the Children’s category and Othappu by author Sarah Joseph (translated by Valson Thampu) has bagged Translation award.

‘The Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award’ which was introduced in 2005, was won by author Rajni Bakshi for her book Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom. The Award is a unique initiative by Crossword and Vodafone and offers readers the opportunity to vote for their favourite book.

Mr. C.B Navalkar – CEO Crossword Bookstores stated: “We are very happy with the response we have been receiving over the years from publishers, authors as well as our readers; we are back once again to encourage and reward the best of Indian writing. As the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards enter its 9th year, we are delighted to have successfully created and sustained the biggest literary platform in India.”

A packed audience that included distinguished writers, publishers, critics and book-lovers enjoyed the much-awaited event that is poised to become the biggest celebration of Indian literature. Shortlisted authors Amit Chaudhuri, Arunava Sinha, Biman Nath, Gurcharan Das, Maitreyee S. C., Mridula Koshy, Nonica Datta, Roopa Pai, Salma,  Shreekumar Varma & S. M. M. Ausaja were present at this well-attended event. Eminent author & poet Arundhathi Subramanian and eminent author & art curator Ranjit Hoskote played hosts for the evening.

The winners for the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards 2009 were decided by a respected panel of judges comprising well-known academics, critics and writers in each category. Usha K. R, Harish Trivedi and Bishakha Datta served as judges in the Fiction category; Harsh Sethi, Urvashi Butalia and Pratap Bhanu Mehta for the Non-Fiction category; Ansuhka Ravishankar, Paro Anand, Subashree Krishnaswamy for the Children’s category and Ira Pande, Sukanta Chaudhuri and Rita Kothari for the Translation category.

This year, the Award has generated a great response from the Indian publishers and 211 valid entries were received for the 4 categories. The selection process took several months of reading, deliberation and discussion before the three panels made their selections.

Crossword is India’s leading bookstore chain, which has pioneered the lifestyle bookstore concept in India. Crossword was ranked the 6th most admired retailer in India by Business world for the year 2006; it was the only book retailer in the top 10.Crossword won the Reid & Taylor Award for Best Retailer of the year – Leisure & Specialty at the India Retail Summit 2005 & 2007& 2009.Crossword won the Retailer of the Year Award - Leisure (Books, Music and Gifts Category) at the Images Retail Awards 2005 & 2007.Crossword received the Federation of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005 at the hands of Shri Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development.

Launched in 1992, Crossword currently has 63 stores across 12 cities in the country in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Vadodara. Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper’s Stop Ltd – India’s leading department store chain. The Holding Company inter-alia also acts as a Master Franchisee of the Company.