Dateline Dehradun: Valley of Words ~ Shabdavali announced its 8 Winners of the REC-VoW Book Awards 2025 — celebrating the best of English literature, Hindi sahitya, and writings for young adults and children. Currently in its 9th edition, the Valley of Words Festival continues to host India’s most comprehensive independent literary awards. Each VBA Winner is offered a prize of INR 1 lakh along with a citation and panel discussion at the Finale in Dehradun on October 25th and 26th 2025.
Over 600 nominations were received in 2025 from 75 publishing houses across the country. The selection of the books involves a three-stage process, with the Shortlist and Winner selected by the VBA Winners of the previous year: for 2025, our Jury included Smriti Ravindra (The Woman Who Climbed Trees), Manoj Mitta (Caste Pride), Dr Jaiwanti Dimri (for Anjum Katyal; Truth/Untruth), Subhash Neerav (Ambar Pariyaan), Uday Prakash (Antim Nimbu), Dr Suresh Pant (Shabdon ke Saath Saath), Shabnam Minwalla (Zen) and Vibha Batra (The Chhau Champ).
Commenting on the REC-VoW Book Awards 2025, Festival Director Dr Sanjeev Chopra stated, “As in previous years, the response from publishers has been very positive. We also wish to thank all the Jury Members for their patient reading and insightful selections. Each of the books chosen this year is ambitious in its scope and covers themes which help us better understand ourselves and the world around us. We are all very much looking forward to engaging with the authors in Dehradun and bringing their work to audiences here.”
The REC-VoW Book Award Winners for 2025 are:
ENGLISH FICTION
Swallowing the Sun by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri (Aleph)
ENGLISH NON-FICTION
Ananda: An Exploration of Cannabis in India by Karan Madhok (Aleph)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Lavanyadevi translated from the Hindi by Banibrata Mahanta (Orient BlackSwan)
HINDI TRANSLATION
Bahattar Meel translated from the Marathi by Sulabha Kore (Radhakrishna)
HINDI FICTION
Suno Kabir by Soni Pandey (Lokbharti)
HINDI NON- FICTION
Bidaai De Ma! by Sudhir Vidhyarthi (Rajpal (Rajpal & Sons)
YA LITERATURE
art is a voice by Kripa (ArtsIntegrated)
CHILDREN’ S LITERATURE
Cactus Wants a Hug by Neil Flory (Hachette)
The Valley of Words community extends warm congratulations to each of these authors and their publishers. Please join us in conversation with the 8 winners of VBA 2025 at the 9th Edition of Valley of Words~Shabdavali, on the 25th and 26th of October 2025, at Hotel Madhuban in Dehradun.
Celebrate the Word—and beyond!
For further information, please visit www.valleyofwords.org or write to [email protected]
