The Wise Owl Literary Awards 2026
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Submissions Open on 1st June 2025
Submissions Close on 30th August 2025
Announcement of Longlist of Awards: 1st January 2026
Announcement of Shortlist of Awards: 1st February 2026
Announcement of winners: March 2026 (TBA)
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
The WiseOwl Publications was founded to inculcate love for literature and art among the general populace. In order to make that possible, various literary & creative activities were instituted such as publication of an international, monthly magazine, The Wise Owl, which offers a free platform for upcoming poets and writers. It also connected the upcoming poets and writers with renowned poets and writers who acted as creative mentors to the upcoming ilk. The Wise Owl also took upon itself the task of publishing anthologies of poetry and fiction and organising events such as poetry readings, literary soirees, workshops et al. In continuation of this lifelong enterprise to promote literature, The Wiseowl Publications have now instituted The Wise Owl Literary Awards.
The Founders
Dr Rachna Singh, Author, Principal Editor, The Wise Owl & former civil servant
Dr Harmeet Singh, Artist, Senior, Editor, The Wise Owl & former civil servant
The Wise Owl Literary Award Categories
Fiction: This category includes published novels, novellas & collection of short stories.
Poetry : This category includes published poetry collections (all genres) or a long poem.
Non-Fiction : This category includes published biography, autobiography, collection of
personal essays, creative articles, travelogues or musings (all genres other than
scholarly or academic writings)
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
One winner and two honourable mentions will be selected for each category. The winner shall be awarded a cash prize of Rs 25,000/- along with The Wise Owl Scroll & plaque. The Honourable mentions will be felicitated with The Wise Owl scroll & plaque The names of the winners will be displayed on the permanent website and the social media platforms of The Wise Owl.
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Eligibility Criteria and Submission Guidelines
The Wise Owl Lit Awards 2026
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Eligibility Criteria and Submission Guidelines
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Nominations Open: 1st June 2025
Last Date for Submission: 30th August 2025
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Award Categories:
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Poetry (This category includes published poetry collections (all genres) Translations are eligible. Anthologies are not
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Fiction (This category includes published novels, novellas & collection of short stories. Translations are eligible. Anthologies are not)
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Non-Fiction (This category includes published biography, autobiography, collection of personal essays, creative articles, travelogues or musings (all genres other than scholarly or academic writings)
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Awards:
Winner: Cash Prize of Rs 25000/- + Scroll + Plaque
1st Runners Up: Scroll+ Plaque
2nd Runners Up: Scroll+Plaque
Eligibility Criteria:
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Books must be published in English between 1st July 2024 and 31st May 2025.
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Publishers are invited to submit nominations using the official online nomination form available on The Wise Owl website.
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Nominations to be made by the Publisher. If Self-published, enter self-published in the Publisher's Name column.
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There is no restriction on the number of books a publisher may nominate, provided each book falls within the eligible publication period. Books by foreign authors published under aegis of Indian Publisher are eligible
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There is no nomination fee .
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A poet/writer may submit only one entry per category.​
Submission Requirements:
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Only physical copies of books will be accepted. PDFs or digital formats will not be considered.
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Each nomination must include three (3) physical copies of the book, sent to the following address:
​The Editor, The Wise Owl ,#001, Aster C, Ambika Florence Park, New Chandigarh – 140901 DIGIPIN: CM7-466-468M
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Incomplete submissions (missing details or copies) will be disqualified. No further communication will be entertained in such cases.
Nomination Form for The Wise Owl Literary Awards 2026
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Selection Process:
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The Jury’s decision will be final and binding. It will not be open to review or litigation.
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The Jury reserves the right not to confer an award if the quality or number of submissions is deemed inadequate.
Important Notes:
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For any queries regarding the awards, please contact: editor@thewiseowl.art.
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Winners must be physically present to receive the award. Failure to do so may result in forfeiture of the cash prize, at the discretion of The Wise Owl.
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Runners-up are also expected to attend the award ceremony in person or be represented by their publishers.
Key Dates:
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Nominations Close: 30th August 2025
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Longlist Announcement: 1st January 2026
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Shortlist Announcement: 1st February 2026
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The Wise Owl Literary Awards Event : March 2026. Date to be announced.
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Jury Details: Available Below
Meet the Jury of The Wise Owl Literary Awards 2026
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Vivek Atray, ex IAS, is a Motivational speaker, Author, Mentor, Advisor, columnist and Visiting Professor. He resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in 2017.
He has 8 TEDx Talks & 5 highly popular JOSH Talks which have been viewed by more than 6 million, especially his interview with Ranveer Ahlabadia aka Beer Biceps.
​
He is the founder of SUVICHAR Think Tank, Visiting Professor and Chair of the Yogananda Centre for Theology at Shoolini University. He is also founder of the Vibrant Networking forum, Playwrite Foundation, Chandigarh literary Society and Co-convener of INTACH Chandigarh. he is also member of the Governor's Advisory Council of Chandigarh, UT.
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Vivek Atray is an acclaimed orator and has spoken in India and abroad at events of HORASIS, NASSCOM, CII, TIE, NCGG, LBSNAA, IIFT, ISB, Universities, Colleges and private companies.
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His novels are "Move on Bunny" & "Dubeyji Bounces Back". He writes a fortnightly column Random Forays for Hindustan Times. His new books are 'Its a Wonderful Life' and "Finding Success Within."
Prof Meenakshi Bharat teaches in the University of Delhi and is a writer, translator, reviewer and critic. Her special interests include children's literature, women's fiction, film studies, postcolonial, English and cultural studies—areas which she has extensively researched. She has published The Ultimate Colony: The Child in Postcolonial Fiction, Desert in Bloom: Indian Women Writers of Fiction in English, Filming the Line of Control: The Indo-Pak Relationship through the Cinematic Lens, Rushdie the Novelist, four volumes of Indo-Australian short fiction entitled Fear Factor: Terror Incognito from Picador and Alien Shores: Tales of Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Only Connect: Technology and Us and the recent, Glass Walls: Stories of Tolerance and Intolerance from the Indian Subcontinent and Australia, and a children’s book, Little Elephant throws a Party. Troubled Testimonies: Terrorism and the English Novel in India (2016) and Shooting Terror: The Hindi Film and Terrorism (2020) . She served as the President of the International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM, UNESCO) from 2014-2017 and continues to be a member of the Executive and as a bureau member of the International Council of Philosophy and the Human Sciences (CIPSH, UNESCO). She is an Executive member of the Indian Association for the Study of Australia (IASA) having served as the Treasurer from 2012-2016.
Avinash Mohananey belongs to 1985 batch of Indian Police Service allotted to Sikkim cadre. He has worked in various capacities in Sikkim Police and on deputation to government of India in Intelligence Bureau. He was also on a diplomatic assignment with High Commission of India in Islamabad for close to four years. He has been awarded the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious service and Presidents Medal for Distinguished service.
After retirement as Director General of Police from Sikkim in 2017, Avinash took to writing about contemporary issues. He has written several articles on strategic, security, Pakistan developments, Kashmir, political issues, farmer issues and other issues faced by the country. The write ups have been published in prestigious dailies like Economic Times, Hindustan Times, The Print, The Citizen, DNA and on platforms like rediff.com.
The Jury for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
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Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer, and translator with 30 books published, (10 books in Bengali and 20 books in English) including six solo/jointly edited books and two joint books. His English poetry and prose are published across more than 100 anthologies as well as in eminent journals of India and abroad that includes Indian Literature, Converse, Asias Best Poems, Yearbook 2022, 2023 and others. His poems are translated in 18 languages and published in 14 countries.He was conferred the Ist Jayanta Mahapatra National Award for Literature on 3 rd February, 2024 at Toshali Literature Festival, Bhubaneshwar. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021, He has received Setu Excellence award, Pittsburgh,
US in poetry. His collection of poems ‘Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets.’ has received Pan Asian Ukiyoto awards. He is the recipient of the Poet of the year award in Destiny Poets, UK, 2016 and also received featured poet award in Poetry In A Cup, USA,
2004 and a winner of Haiku in Poetry.com, USA, 2004.
Taseer Gujral is a poet, editor, columnist and a translator. She is an ACC scholar from ASRC, Hyderabad and has worked on the feminist poems of Adrienne Rich for her doctoral thesis. Her published works appear in Outlook, The Punch Magazine, The Sunflower Collective, Coldnoon Diaries, Muse India, Open Book review and several acclaimed poetry anthologies. She has translated seminal works like Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story Rebati in Punjabi, and some of Sultan Bahu’s poetry in English. Her columns on Literature and Cinema have also appeared in DNA. Her interests range from Poetry, Translation, Cinema, Culture, Aesthetics and Music.
Radha Chakravarty is a widely published poet, critic and translator. Subliminal: Poems, her collection of poetry, was named by Ars Notoria (UK) as one of the best books from South Asia in 2024. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She contributed to Pandemic: A Worldwide Community Poem (Muse Pie Press, USA), nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020. She has published over 20 books, including translations of major Bengali writers, anthologies of South Asian writing, and critical studies of Tagore, Mahasweta Devi and contemporary women writers. She co-edited The Essential Tagore (Harvard and Visva-Bharati), named Book of the Year 2011 by Martha Nussbaum. She was Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies at Dr B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi.
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Prof.Mini Nanda has thirty-seven years of teaching experience in the English Department at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Her publications include over 50 published papers.. She has guided M.Phil and Ph.D thesis in diverse areas. Her translations have been published by the National Saahitya Akademi. Prof. Nanda has been invited to Conferences in India and abroad and delivered the Keynote Address at an inter-disciplinary Conference in Washington University in Rome, in June 2017. She coordinated, designed and taught courses for Guelph-India and Minnesota-India Programmes on Indian Writing in English & in Translation. She has been a prominent voice over the Radio and moderated sessions at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2025, and other literary events at the Rajasthan International Centre.
Prof. Rana Nayar retired as Professor from the Department of English & Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh in 2017 after 37 years of service. He has over twenty five books to his credit. His main areas of interest are: World Drama/Theatre, Translation Studies, Literary Theory and Cultural Studies. A practicing translator of repute, he has rendered around sixteen modern classics of Punjabi into English. He also has one collection of poems "Breathing Spaces", one book of non-fiction "Corona Chronicles" and five critical books, i.e., "Edward Albee: Towards a Typology of Relationships" (New Delhi: Prestige), "Inter-sections: Essays on Indian Literatures, Translations and Popular Consciousness" (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan), "Gurdial Singh: A Reader" (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi), "Cultural Studies in India" (Routledge, London, New Delhi) and "Critical Discourse in Punjabi" (Routledge: London) to his credit. His forthcoming publications include translation of Gurdial Singh's The Dying Flame) Marhi Da Deeva) and "Mediations: Essays on Literature, Politics and Culture". A committed theatre lover, he has directed over twenty major, full-length productions, He is recipient of First Prize for his translation of Baba Farid from Sahitya Akademi (2007) Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship for three months to UK (1999) and Peter Hall Research Fellowship to UBC (Vancouver) ifor over a month n 2014.
Navaneetha Mokkil Navaneetha Mokkil teaches at Center for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her areas of research and teaching include feminist theory and methodology, print and visual culture, and public formations of sexuality. She is the author of Unruly Figures: Queerness, Sex Work and the Politics of Sexuality in Kerala (2019) and the co-editor of Thinking Women: A Feminist Reader (2019). Her articles on the non-linear imaginations of sexuality have appeared in the journals Studies in European Cinema, Inter Asia Cultural Studies, South Asian Popular Culture, and BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies.
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The Wise Owl Literary Awards 2025
Chandigarh city witnessed a spectacular celebration of literature and art at The Wise Owl Literary Awards on March 15, 2025. The evening opened with an enchanting Bharatanatyam performance by Mugdha Asnikar, invoking Goddess Saraswati, followed by a warm welcome address by Dr. Rachna Singh, founding editor of The Wise Owl.
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A series of thought-provoking discussions with award winners and jury members provided insight into the literary excellence recognized at the event. The awards were presented in three categories: Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction. In Poetry, Sudeep Sen’s Anthropocene took the top honor, followed by Smitha Sehgal’s How Women Become Poems in Malabar (1st Runner-up) and Rochelle Potkar’s Coins in Rivers (2nd Runner-up). The Fiction category saw Shinie Antony’s Eden Abandoned emerge as the winner, with The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas and Taxi by Manjula Padmanabhan securing the runner-up positions. In Non-Fiction, I Am a Runner by Sohini Chattopadhyay won the award, with Arun Ezhuthachan’s Sacred Sins (1st Runner-up) and Pradeep Sebastian’s An Inky Paradise (2nd Runner-up) earning recognition.
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The winners were honored with a ₹25,000 cheque, while the runners-up received plaques and scrolls. The evening concluded with a mesmerizing Holi-themed dance performance by Asnikar, followed by a lavish supper. Attended by literary luminaries, art enthusiasts, and avid readers, the event was a resounding tribute to the power of storytelling and creative expression.
The Award Winners 2025
The Wise Owl Award Winners (Poetry)
WINNER
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Anthropocene: Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation
Sudeep Sen (Pippa Rann)
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1st Runner Up
How Women become Poems in Malabar
Smitha Seghal (Red River)
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2nd Runner up
Coins in Rivers
Rochelle Potkar (Hachette)
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The Wise Owl Literary Award Winners (Fiction)
Winner​
Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith
Shinie Antony (Hachette, India)
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1st Runner Up
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Blue Bar
Damyanti Biswas (Jaico Publishing)
2nd Runner Up
Taxi
Manjula Padmanabhan (Hachette)
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The Wise Owl Award Winners (Non-Fiction)
WINNER
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The day I became a Runner: A Women’s history of India through the Lens of Sport
Sohini Chattopadhyay (Harper Collins, India)
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1st Runner Up
Sacred Sins
Arun Ezhuthachan (Hachette, India)
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2nd Runner up
An Inky Pardise: Tales of Bibliophiles
Pradeep Sebastian (Hachette, India)
Glimpses of The Wise Owl Award Ceremony 2025
Sessions With Award-winning Poets & Writers
Session with Shinie Antony
moderated by Dr Mridula Sharma
Session with Sudeep Sen & Smitha Sehgal
moderated by Manraj Grewal
Session with Arun Ezhuthachan
moderated by Geetmala Mohananey
Sessions With Jury Members
Session with Taseer Gujral & Renu Sud Sinha
(Jury Members [Poetry])
moderated by Dr Irma Maini
Session with Ramendra Kumar, Santosh Bakaya & Dr Navjot Kaur
(Jury Members [Fiction])
moderated by Dr Ranjit Powar
Session with Vivek Atray, Avinash Mohananey & Pankaj Singh
(Jury Members [Non Fiction])
moderated by Poonam Batth
Dance Performance
Performance by Bharatnatyam Exponent Mugdha Asnikar
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
Shortlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
Categories: Poetry, Fiction & Non-Fiction
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Congratulations to all the authors who are featured in the Short List.
The Shortlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Non-Fiction)
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Sacred Sins
Arun Ezhuthachan (Hachette, India)
Fifty Year Road
Bhaskar Roy (Jaico Publishing House)
An Inky Pardise: Tales of Bibliophiles
Pradeep Sebastian (Hachette, India)
The Last dance of Rationality: Making Sense of an Unravelling World Order
Rohit Prasad (Hachette, India)
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The day I became a Runner: A Women’s history of India through the Lens of Sport
Sohini Chattopadhyay (Harper Collins, India)
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The Shortlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Poetry)
How to love in Sanskrit: Poems (Trans)
Anusha Sudindra Rao (Harper Collins, India)
Anemone morning & Other Poems
Gopal Lahiri (Penprints)
Coins in Rivers
Rochelle Potkar (Hachette)
Anthropocene: Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation
Sudeep Sen (Pippa Rann)
How Women become Poems in Malabar
Smitha Seghal (Red River)
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The Shortlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Fiction)
​The Viceroy’s Artist
Anindyo Roy (Hachette)
​​The Blue Bar
Damyanti Biswas (Jaico Publishing)
Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith
Shinie Antony (Hachette, India)
Taxi
Manjula Padmanabhan (Hachette)
​17, Morris Road
Parul Sharma (Hachette)
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Note: 1. The Shortlist is not in chronological order of evaluation.
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The Wise Owl Literary Awards
Longlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
Categories: Poetry, Fiction & Non-Fiction)
A Big Congratulations to all the authors who have made it to the long List.
The Longlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Non-Fiction)
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Sacred Sins
Arun Ezhuthachan (Hachette, India)
No Woman’s Land
Ankita Srivastava (Readomania)
The Afghans
Asne Seierstad(Hachette) (tied)
Fifty Year Road
Bhaskar Roy (Jaico Publishing House)
An Inky Pardise: Tales of Bibliophiles
Pradeep Sebastian (Hachette, India)
The Last dance of Rationality: Making Sense of an Unravelling World Order
Rohit Prasad (Hachette, India)
Shelf Aware: A Love affair with Books
V.R Ferose (Hachette, India)
Indian Cities-Ancient and Medieval
Raghavan Srinivasan (Hachette, India)
The day I became a Runner: A Women’s history of India through the Lens of Sport
Sohini Chattopadhyay (Harper Collins, India)
Ram Vilas Paswan: The Weathervane of Indian politics
Sobhana K Nair (Roli Books)
A Green Day: Embracing Climate Action
Jeevesh Gupta, Chittranjan Dubey & Anandjit Goswami (Hachette, India) (Tied)
The Longlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Poetry)
How to love in Sanskrit: Poems (Trans)
Anusha Sudindra Rao (Harper Collins, India)
Anemone morning & Other Poems
Gopal Lahiri (Penprints)
A warm place with no memory
Gayatri Majumdar (Red River)
The Spell of the Rain Tree
Geetha Ravichandran (Red River)
Longing for sun, longing for rain
Geethanjali Rajan (Red River) (tied)
Coins in Rivers
Rochelle Potkar (Hachette)
Anthropocene: Climate Change, Contagion, Consolation
Sudeep Sen (Pippa Rann)
How Women become Poems in Malabar
Smitha Seghal (Red River)
Poems at daybreak
Moumita Alam (Red River)
How I Remember you is how the page Flips
Pushpanjana Karmakar(Red River) (tied)
To the edgeless Sky & back
Rupa Anand (Red River)
The Longlist for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
(Fiction)
The Labyrinth of Silence
Aparna Salvi Nagada (Vishwakarma Publishing)
The Viceroy’s Artist
Anindyo Roy (Hachette)
Your Utopia
Bora Chung Tran (Hachette) (tied)
The Strange eventful History
Claire Messud (Hachette) (tied)
The Blue Bar
Damyanti Biswas (Jaico Publishing)
Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith
Shinie Antony (Hachette, India)
Taxi
Manjula Padmanabhan (Hachette)
Beneath Divided Skies
Natasha Sharma (Vishwakarma publishing)
17, Morris Road
Parul Sharma (Hachette)
A Nest of Vipers
Harini Nagendra (Hachette)
The Enclave: A Sharp & hilarious Portrait of Women in India
Rohit Manchanda (Harper Collins) (tied)
The Way Home
Shalini Mullick (Readomania) (tied)
Note: 1. The longlist is not in chronological order of evaluation.
​2. 10 Authors/books were to be included in the longlist in every category. However, some book/authors are tied, so the list may exceed the stipulated number of 10.
​3. The Poetry Category has been evaluated by a jury of 2 as Ivy Hansdak was unable to submit the evaluation scores in time on account of extenuating circumstances
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
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Announcement of Longlist of Awards: 1st January 2025
Announcement of Shortlist of Awards: 1st February 2025
Announcement of winners: March 2025 (TBA)
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
The WiseOwl Publications was founded to inculcate love for literature and art among the general populace. In order to make that possible, various literary & creative activities were instituted such as publication of an international, monthly magazine, The Wise Owl, which offers a free platform for upcoming poets and writers. It also connected the upcoming poets and writers with renowned poets and writers who acted as creative mentors to the upcoming ilk. The Wise Owl also took upon itself the task of publishing anthologies of poetry and fiction and organising events such as poetry readings, literary soirees, workshops et al. In continuation of this lifelong enterprise to promote literature, The Wiseowl Publications have now instituted The Wise Owl Literary Awards.
The Founders
Dr Rachna Singh, Author, Principal Editor, The Wise Owl & former civil servant
Dr Harmeet Singh, Artist, Senior, Editor, The Wise Owl & former civil servant
The Wise Owl Literary Award Categories
Fiction: This category includes published novels, novellas & collection of short stories.
Poetry : This category includes published poetry collections (all genres) or a long poem.
Non-Fiction : This category includes published biography, autobiography, collection of
personal essays, creative articles, travelogues or musings (all genres other than
scholarly or academic writings)
The Wise Owl Literary Awards
One winner and two honourable mentions will be selected for each category. The winner shall be awarded a cash prize of Rs 25,000/- along with The Wise Owl Scroll. The Honourable mentions will be felicitated with The Wise Owl scroll. The names of the winners will be displayed on the permanent website and the social media platforms of The Wise Owl.
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​
The Jury for The Wise Owl Literary Awards
Dr. Ivy Imogene Hansdak is an poet, scholar and translator employed as Associate Professor in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. She did her M. Phil. on “The Tribal as the ‘Primitive’ Other in Indian Literature: A Study of Three Texts” from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and her PhD on “Conversion, Marginalization and Emancipation in Three Women’s Narratives”, also from JNU, New Delhi. She has authored two poetry collections titled The Golden Chord (Writers Workshop: 2010) and The Prism of Life (Writers Workshop: 2022), besides editing her father’s autobiographical narrative, A Doctor Among the Santals: The Autobiography of Dr. Stephen B. Hansdak (ISPCK: 2012). She has also published several research papers in edited volumes and scholarly journals. She is an upcoming translator of Santali fiction into English
Taseer Gujral is a poet, editor, columnist and a translator. She is an ACC scholar from ASRC, Hyderabad and has worked on the feminist poems of Adrienne Rich for her doctoral thesis. Her published works appear in Outlook, The Punch Magazine, The Sunflower Collective, Coldnoon Diaries, Muse India, Open Book review and several acclaimed poetry anthologies. She has translated seminal works like Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story Rebati in Punjabi, and some of Sultan Bahu’s poetry in English. Her columns on Literature and Cinema have also appeared in DNA. Her interests range from Poetry, Translation, Cinema, Culture, Aesthetics and Music.
Renu Sinha is a journalist with nearly 30 years of experience. She earned her Master's in English Literature from Punjab University. She writes on a variety of subjects, including gender issues, art, literature, films and civil nd social issues. She loves reading books and also reviews books. She is also passionate about photography. A closet poet, her passion for writing poetry was rekindled nearly a decade ago. Since then, her poems have been published in prestigios international literary magazines. She writes in English, Hindi as well as Punjabi, A storyteller at heart, she wants to take her stories to celluloid now. She has done a short course on film-making from FTII and is honing her craft at Spiral Bound, a screenwriting platform by Boman Irani where he mentors eager writers. She lives in Chandigarh and loves its wide, green spaces.
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Vivek Atray, ex IAS, is a Motivational speaker, Author, Mentor, Advisor, columnist and Visiting Professor. He resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in 2017.
He has 8 TEDx Talks & 5 highly popular JOSH Talks which have been viewed by more than 6 million, especially his interview with Ranveer Ahlabadia aka Beer Biceps.
​
He is the founder of SUVICHAR Think Tank, Visiting Professor and Chair of the Yogananda Centre for Theology at Shoolini University. He is also founder of the Vibrant Networking forum, Playwrite Foundation, Chandigarh literary Society and Co-convener of INTACH Chandigarh. he is also member of the Governor's Advisory Council of Chandigarh, UT.
​
Vivek Atray is an acclaimed orator and has spoken in India and abroad at events of HORASIS, NASSCOM, CII, TIE, NCGG, LBSNAA, IIFT, ISB, Universities, Colleges and private companies.
​
His novels are "Move on Bunny" & "Dubeyji Bounces Back". He writes a fortnightly column Random Forays for Hindustan Times. His new books are 'Its a Wonderful Life' and "Finding Success Within."
Pankaj Singh is the CEO of the hugely successful Bookstore in Chandigarh, aptly called Browser. He has now expanded his work and also happens to be the Mentor of Fauji Days, a Publishing house with a special focus on Military Literature.
Avinash Mohananey belongs to 1985 batch of Indian Police Service allotted to Sikkim cadre. He has worked in various capacities in Sikkim Police and on deputation to government of India in Intelligence Bureau. He was also on a diplomatic assignment with High Commission of India in Islamabad for close to four years. He has been awarded the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious service and Presidents Medal for Distinguished service.
After retirement as Director General of Police from Sikkim in 2017, Avinash took to writing about contemporary issues. He has written several articles on strategic, security, Pakistan developments, Kashmir, political issues, farmer issues and other issues faced by the country. The write ups have been published in prestigious dailies like Economic Times, Hindustan Times, The Print, The Citizen, DNA and on platforms like rediff.com.
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Santosh Bakaya is a Ph.D., a poet, essayist, novelist, biographer, Tedx speaker and has authored as many as twenty-eight books across different genres. She is the Winner of Reuel International Award for poetry [2014] and Setu Award for her stellar contribution to world literature [2018]. She has been acclaimed for her poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Ballad of Bapu. Her biography on Martin Luther King Jr. Only in Darkness can you see the Stars has also been critically acclaimed. Her latest book is Runcible Spoons and Pea-green Boats. She pens a weekly column called Morning Meanderings in Learning and Creativity. Com.
Some of her latest books of poetry are What is the Meter of the Dictionary? [AuthorsPress, 2022], The Fog, A liquid Ditty Floats [AuthorsPress, 2023], Sunset in a Cup [ AuthorsPress, 2024]. Her E-books are Morning Meanderings [Blue Pencil, 2020] & Melange of Mavericks and Mutants [with Ramendra Kumar
Blue Pencil, 2022.], Vodka by the Volga [Blue Pencil, 2020] with Dr. Ampat Koshy, From Princep Ghat to Peer Panjal, [with Gopal Lahiri, Her TEDx Talk-The Myth of Writers' Block, is very popular in creative writing classes.
Her book of short stories with Avijit Sarkar, Bring out the Tall Tales, and her novella, A Skyful of Balloons, have been widely appreciated.
Dr Navjot Kaur, Principal, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector-26, Chandigarh has to her credit an illustrious career spanning over three decades in the area of education. She is a distinguished academician and exemplary leader. Her dynamic leadership has propelled the College to new heights, and her unwavering commitment to the promotion of Environmental Sustainability and Preservation of Heritage and Culture has been lauded and commended by International and National bodies alike.
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She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards such as International Green University Award 2023 (Green Mentors, Powered by Law of Nature, Special Consultative Status with Economics and Social Council of United Nations), Rotary International Citation for Rotaract Club of SGGSC, District Environment Championship Award 2024-25 (National EduTrust of India), State Award for Single use Plastic and E-Waste Management (Department of Environment Chandigarh) among others.
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She has authored 4 books with international publishers and 19 papers in International and national journals of repute. She has presented 44 papers in international & national conferences.She has served as Member Board of Postgraduate Studies, PU Chd for three terms.
Ramendra Kumar is an award-winning writer, performance storyteller and inspirational speaker with 49 books under his belt. His books have been translated into 32 languages and inluded in several anthologies and textbooks in various countries. Ramen has written across genres and his work has been published by najor publishing house. His books brought out by National Book Trust (NBT), India have notched up sales of more than a million copies.
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Ramen has been invited to several international literary festivals as well as Indian marquee events like the Laipur Literarture Festival. Ramen was nominated as a jury member for the Times of India 'Women Auther Awards 2020 and also selected as a mentor for the Scholastic Writer's Academy.
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an engineer and an MBA, Ramendra was working as general Manager (Corporate communications) SAIL in Rourkela Steel Plant when he took voluntary retirement. he is now a cancer warrior and an inspiration to many.