Dateline Dehradun: Over the course of a decade, Valley of Words continues to celebrate the brilliance of authors across genres through the REC-Valley of Words Book Awards (VBA) across a comprehensive range of categories, including Hindi and English Translations, English Fiction and Non-Fiction, Hindi Fiction and Non-Fiction, Writing for Young Adults and Children’s Literature (bilingual). The eight VBA Winners are brought together with artists, craftspeople, readers, critics, thespians and listeners in VoW’s annual Signature Event in Dehradun scheduled for 28th-29th November, 2026.
Over 600 book nominations from across India put to rest the apprehension in some quarters that the era of reading and writing is over. Each year VoW finds itself going through a unique experience with the range and diversity of themes, writing styles, cover pages and illustrations (for children’s books) which makes the longlist selection process extremely demanding.
The REC-VBA commitment to diversity is reflected in the ten longlisted works under eight categories that offer a tangible connection to India’s diverse and rich heritage. The previous year’s REC-VBA Winners bring in their expertise of refining the shortlist of 5 from a pool of exceptional entries. The consistently high calibre of submissions poses a considerable challenge for the jury each year, as Festival Director Sanjeev Chopra puts it, “As in previous years, the 2026 list is truly eclectic and representative of the country’s contemporary writing scene. We received over 600 nominations from 70 publishers, as well as several individual entries. The longlist of 80 authors includes equal number of men and women, featuring translations from Assamese, Hindi, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Prakrit, Punjabi, Tamizh, and Urdu. For the second consecutive year, we have also received entries in both Hindi and English for the two bilingual categories: Writings for Children and Young Adults. We are now eagerly awaiting the jury members’ responses to these wonderful offerings.”
The National Reading Month (from 19th June to 18th July) serves as a benchmark for the VoW Secretariat to unveil its Shortlist in the honour of P.N. Panicker, the “Father of the Library Movement” which began in Kerala. Panicker strongly believed that education and literacy were the keys to social progress and founded the Kerala Grandhasala Sangham (Library Association) in 1945, which played a pivotal role in setting up thousands of libraries across the state and inspired generations to embrace the transformative power of books. The books nominated for VoW will also remain available to readers in Dehradun through the VoW Café and Library in Sahastradhara.
Keeping its date with tradition, the Valley of Words announces its comprehensive Longlist for the REC-VoW Book Awards 2026 under all 8 categories over a period of three weeks: English Non-fiction; English Fiction, English Translation, Hindi Translation, Hindi Fiction, Hindi Non-fiction, Young Adult Literature, and Children’s Literature (Bilingual) which can be found on their website www.valleyofwords.org
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