Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards 2026 Honour Namita Gokhale, Mahadev Toppo and Peggy Mohan

The Banaras Literature Festival has announced the winners of the 2nd Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards 2026. These awards celebrate excellent writing in English, Hindi and other Indian languages. Well-known authors, poets and translators were honoured for their outstanding literary work. The awards also recognised lifetime contributions and young literary talent. The winners will be honoured during the Banaras Lit Fest, to be held from January 30 to February 1, 2026.

Namita Gokhale Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Veteran writer Namita Gokhale was honoured with the Bhartendu Harishchandra Lifetime Achievement Award. She is best known for her debut novel Paro: Dreams of Passion, which is considered a cult classic. She is also the co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival and has played an important role in building literary platforms in India.

English Language Award Winners

The English language awards honoured writers and translators for exceptional fiction, poetry, non-fiction and translation works.

Award Name	Category	Winner	Book
Ruskin Bond Award	Fiction	Shinie Antony	Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith
Sarojini Naidu Award	Poetry	Abhay K	The Hanuman Chalisa
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award	Non-Fiction	Peggy Mohan	Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Language in South Asia
Rabindranath Tagore Award	Translation	Arunava Sinha	Limited / Unlimited (English translation from Bengali)

Hindi Literature Award Winners

• In Hindi literature, Mamta Kalia won the Premchand Award for Fiction for Doorasth Dampatya.
• Poet Udayan Vajpeyi received the Kabir Award for Poetry for Pagal Ganitagya Ki Kavitayein.
• The Rahul Sankrityayan Award for Non-Fiction was given to J Sushil for Dukh Ki Duniya Bheetar Hai.
• Rajgopal Singh Verma won the Mahadevi Verma Award for Translation for translating 1857 Ki Kranti Ka Awadh.

Special Awards and Honours

• Among special honours, writer Mahadev Toppo received the Kalidas Award for Indian Languages.
• The Vivekanand Award for Youth was awarded to Parag Pawan for his contribution as a young writer.

Award Ceremony Dates and Venue

The winners will be formally honoured during the Banaras Literature Festival, which will take place from January 30 to February 1, 2026, in Banaras (Varanasi). The festival will bring together writers, readers and literary thinkers from across the country.