Shakti Bhatt Prize

The Shakti Bhatt Prize is a literary award established in 2007 in memory of Indian publisher, Shakti Bhatt. Between 2008 and 2019, it was awarded for first books published in India by an author of any age in the genres of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and drama.^[2] From 2020 onward, the Prize has been awarded in recognition of a writer's body of work, instead of a first book.^[3]

Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize
Awarded for the first book published an author in India
Country	India
Presented by	Shakti Bhatt Foundation
Reward(s)	₹200,000[1]
Established	2007
First award	2008
Final award	2022

Establishment

The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize was established by an eponymous foundation in memory of Shakti Bhatt, an Indian publisher. Bhatt, the editor of Indian publishing house, Bracket Books, died following an illness in 2007. The Shakti Bhatt Foundation was established in her memory by her husband, Indian poet Jeet Thayil, along other friends and family; the foundation funds and manages the award.^[2][4][5]

The prize was first awarded in 2008 to Mohammad Hanif for his novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes.^[6] In 2020, the new Shakti Bhatt Prize was awarded to incarcerated scholars and writers Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha.^[3]

In May 2021, the Foundation announced that there would be no prize for 2021, and instead donated the prize money towards relief efforts relating to the Covid-19 pandemic in India.^[7]

Eligibility and Criteria

Between 2008 and 2019, the Award was open to nominations of first books published during the previous year in the Indian subcontinent within the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Eligible books were either written in English, or translated into English from other languages. Publications from vanity presses were excluded.^[2][8]

In 2020, Thayil announced that the Prize would now be awarded to recognize a writer's body of work, rather than a first book. Speaking about the changes, Thayil stated, "It just seems to us that at this point (in 2020) it does not make sense to have a first book prize. When we started nobody was doing it. In time, first books came up in many shortlists. In fact, there were copycats for just first books prize as well. We just did not see the relevance. So, we wanted to give it to somebody where it will make a difference."^[3]

The Award initially carried a cash prize of ₹100,000 (equivalent to ₹120,000 or US$1,400 in 2023).^[2] In 2014, the prize amount was increased to ₹200,000.^[3][9]

Awards

2008-2019

Year	Jury	Shortlist	Winner
2008[10]	William Dalrymple Kamila Shamsie Samit Basu	David Devadas, In Search of a Future: The Story of Kashmir Amruta Patil, Kari Sridala Swami, A Reluctant Survivor Namita Devidayal, The White Room Aravind Adiga, White Tiger Mohammad Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes Pallavi Aiyar, An Experience of China	Mohammad Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes[6]
2009[11]	Rana Dasgupta Mukund Padmanabhan Arshia Sattar	Chandrahas Choudhury, Arzee the Dwarf Parismita Singh, Hotel at the End of the World, Palash Krishna Mehrotra, Eunuch Park, (Penguin) Mimlu Sen, Baulsphere, Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing Mridula Koshy, If It is Sweet	Mridula Koshy, If It is Sweet[12]
2010[13]	Mahesh Dattani Kalpana Swaminathan Ruchir Joshi.	HM Naqvi, Homeboy Mohyna Srinivasan, House on Mall Road Fatima Bhutto, Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir Ali Sethi, The Wish Maker Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Delhi Calm Samanth Subramaniam, Following Fish	Samanth Subramaniam, Following Fish[14][8]
2011[15]	Sarnath Banerjee Jai Arjun Singh Palash Mehrotra	Aman Sethi, A Free Man A. Revathi, The Truth About Me Mirza Waheed, The Collaborator Jamil Ahmad, The Wandering Falcon Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal, R. D. Burman: The Man The Music Shehan Karunatilaka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew	Jamil Ahmad, The Wandering Falcon[16][17]
2012[18]	David Godwin Tishani Doshi Basharat Peer	Navneet Jagannatha, Tamasha in Bandargaon Priyamvada N. Purushotham, The Purple Line Sudha Shah, The King in Exile Taj Hassan, The Inexplicable Unhappiness of Ramu Hajjam Naresh Fernandes, Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age Bunny Suraiya, Calcutta Exile	Naresh Fernandes, Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age[19]
2013[20]	Meena Kandasamy Sunil Khilnani Niven Govinden	Janice Pariat, Boats on Land Akash Kapur, India Becoming Chetan Raj Shreshta, The King’s Harvest Nilanjana Roy,The Wildings Sonora Jha, Foreign Aranyani, A Pleasant Kind of Heavy and Other Stories	Nilanjana Roy,The Wildings[21]
2014[9]	Amit Chaudhuri Aatish Taseer Mridula Koshy	Deepti Kapoor, A Bad Character Bilal Tanweer, The Scatter Here Is Too Great Prawin Adhikari, The Vanishing Act Supriya Dravid, A Cool, Dark Place Shovon Chowdhury, The Competent Authority Mahesh Rao, The Smoke Is Rising	Bilal Tanweer, The Scatter Here Is Too Great[22][23]
2015[24]	Samhita Arni Mohammed Hanif Krys Lee	Indra Das, The Devourers Saskya Jain, Fire Under Ash Raghu Karnad, The Farthest Field Rohini Mohan, The Seasons of Trouble Bharath Murthy, The Vanished Path Shahid Siddiqui, The Golden Pigeon	Rohini Mohan, The Seasons of Trouble[25]
2016[26]	Samanth Subramaniam Mahesh Rao Janice Pariat	Manu S Pillai, The Ivory Throne Madhu Gurung, The Keeper of Memories Sophia Khan, Yasmeen Nisid Hajari, Midnight’s Furies Kanishk Tharoor, Swimmer Among the Stars Akshaya Mukul, The Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India	Akshaya Mukul, The Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India[27]
2017[28]	Kamila Shamsie Rohini Mohan Margaret Mascarenhas	Anuk Arudpragasam,The Story of a Brief Marriage Prayaag Akbar, Leila Hirsh Sawhney, South Haven Sumana Roy, How I Became a Tree Tripti Lahiri, Maid In India Tejaswini Apte-Rahm, These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape	Anuk Arudpragasam,The Story of a Brief Marriage[29]
2018[30]	Githa Hariharan Sampurna Chattarji Raghu Karnad	Preti Taneja, We That Are Young Deepak Unnikrishnan,Temporary People Aanchal Malhotra, Remnants of a Separation Sanam Maher, The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch, Shreevatsa Nevatia, How to Travel Light Sujatha Gidla, Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India	Sujatha Gidla, Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India[31]
2019[32]	Sonia Faleiro Prayaag Akbar Ruskin Bond	Numair Atif Choudhury, Babu Bangladeshi Priyanka Dubey, No Nation for Women Nadia Akbar, Goodbye Freddie Mercury Tony Joseph, Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came Roshan Ali, Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction	Tony Joseph, Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came[33]

2020

Year	Honorees
2020[3]	Gautam Navlakha Anand Teltumbde
2021[7]	No prize awarded: prize funds were donated to relief efforts relating to the Covid-19 pandemic in India.
2022[34]	Manoranjan Byapari