Introduction to Literary Awards in India
Indian writing is a complicated and massive category. It reflects the diversity of the country in terms of languages, cultures, religions, and geographies. It also covers an array of forms- from poetry to novels, non-fiction to stage plays. Correspondingly, India also has a vast network of awards that recognize different types of writing at different levels. To help you navigate them, we’ve compiled a list!
The list has been divided into regional awards, national awards, and international awards. All these awards have certain requirements for eligibility to apply. The regional awards need you to be residing in the state since birth and/or be writing in the regional language. While the national awards cater to various genres in writing while honouring authors with awards.
What are literary awards in India?
A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author.
Wikipedia
Submitting your work for awards can be a nerve-wracking experience because it means opening it up to scrutiny and criticism. It takes a lot of courage, so you can take one step at a time and aim for the lower-level awards before aiming for the big leagues.
How to submit your work/s to literary awards in India?
Most of these awards require the publisher to submit the works. Authors cannot directly submit their words. However, a few of them do accept direct submissions. Do check out the submission guidelines on their individual websites to know the respective process for each literary award in India.
Why should you submit your work/s to literary awards in India?
In order to understand why these awards are so important, however, it is also crucial to understand what they can mean for an author.
- To start with, most awards come with a monetary prize. As anyone who has tried to make a living out of writing knows, it is not a financially secure profession. Especially for authors who are not well known, finances can be a struggle. Winning an award with a monetary prize offers immediate income.
- Apart from that, awards generally generate a certain amount of publicity. This helps in selling more copies of the work, and in boosting the author’s income. In the industry, an author’s branding and name are of utmost importance.
- Awards are greatly beneficial to both of these and have a significant impact not just on income, but on the level of fame. There have been instances where winning a prestigious award has resulted in overnight fame for authors.
For example, when Arundhati Roy was nominated for the Man Booker prize, she suddenly became the center of international attention. By the time she won it, she was a public figure. It completely transformed the trajectory of her career.
- Apart from commercial interests, however, awards have another crucial function. They boost the confidence of a writer enormously. They represent an acknowledgment that can have a profound positive effect on the writers.
If you are a short story writer and are looking for contests and awards to submit your short stories, you can check out 15 Contests and Awards for Short Stories in India
List of the Literary Awards in India
International Literary Awards
Nobel Prize for literature
- Website: https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/
- Literary Quotient: Brilliant
Man Booker Prize
- Website: https://thebookerprizes.com/information-for/entering-the-prizes
- Literary Quotient: Brilliant
DSC South Asia Literary Prize
- Website: https://www.dscprize.com/about
- Literary Quotient: Brilliant
Raja Rao Award for South Asian Literature
- Website: http://samvadindia.net/si-web/si-rra.htm
- Literary Quotient: Brilliant
Gitanjali Literary Prize
- Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitanjali_Literary_Prize
- Literary Quotient: Brilliant
National Literary Awards in India
Jnanpith Award
Tata Literature Live! Awards
- Website: https://tatalitlive.in/awards/
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
Vyas Samman
Yuva Puraskar
Saraswati Samman
- Website: https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/saraswati-samman-crucial-facts-at-a-glance-1456481887-1
Mahapandit Rahul Sankritayan Award
- Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20100612151004/http://www.hindisansthan.org/hi/courses/courses.htm
JCB Prize for literature
- Website: https://www.thejcbprize.org/rules
Times Excellence Award in Literature
- Website: Times Excellence 2021
Hindu Literary Prize
Valley of Words Awards for Literature
Moorthidevi Award
Crossword Book Award
- Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20101126014018/http://www.crosswordbookstores.com/html/cwba-homepage.htm
Shakti Bhatt Prize
Subramanyam Bharti Awards (Hindi)
Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Award (Hindi)
Gagan Sharan Singh Award
Dr. Geoge Grierson Award (Hindi)
- Website: Women Author Awards 2021
Atta Galatta Book Prize by Bangalore Literary Festival
- Website: https://agblfprize.in/about.php
If you are a poet and are looking for contests and awards to submit your poetry, do check out 15 Contests and Awards for Poetry in India.
State Level Literary Awards in India
Rabindra Puraskar
Kabir Samman
- Website: Link to their wikipedia page
Sahitya Gaurav Puraskar
Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award
Vayalar Award
Vallathol Award
Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram (Malayalam Poets)
Kalaimamani Award (Tamil Nadu)
S.P. Adithanar Literary Award (Tamil Nadu)
Ezhuthachan Puraskaram (Kerala)
Odakkuzhal Award (Malayalam writers)
Muttathu Varkey Awards
Assam Valley Literary Awards
Pampa Award (Karnataka)
Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Literature Award (Chattisgarh)
Ananda Puraskar (West Bengal)
- Website: http://www.abp.in/#anpurashkar
Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award
- Website: http://karnatakasahithyaacademy.org/
Matrubhumi Literary Award
O. V. Vijayan Sahitya Puraskaram (Malayalam)
Edasseri Award (Malayalam)
Nrupatunga Award (Kannada)
Padmarajan Award (Malayalam)
Bankim Puruskar (Bengali)
VishnuPuram Award (Tamil)
Conclusion
These are all the major literary awards for Indian writing.
Whether you’re writing in a regional language or in English, your work can be recognized. Good luck, we hope to see your name on one of these lists soon!
4 Responses
This is no doubt a well-researched compilation. I would love to add here that Govt of Assam had started an award for creative writing – the ‘Prakashan Parishad Award’, Rs 2 lac to the author and 2 Lac to the publisher of the book. Assam Publication Board is the nodal agency for this award.
Can a writer get his book nominated for a state level award when he does not belong to that particular state?
Hi Sana,
Please visit the respective website of that state and/or awards for more information on this.
Thanks for listing but it evades awards instituted by Haryana Sahitya and awards set up by other literary academies of Haryana.