Objective of the Award:
The Vodafone Crossword Book Award recognises and rewards the best of Indian writing and ensures that works of merit reach a wider audience.

Background:
Crossword and Vodafone are committed to promoting books and the reading habit. We have observed that the institution of international book awards - The Booker Prize, The Commonwealth Prize or The Pulitzer Prize has gone a long way in promoting the awareness and the reading of good books. The authors gain recognition and are rewarded handsomely.

While several Indian writers have won awards abroad, we had observed that there was no equivalent award in India. We therefore decided to take on the role of encouraging and promoting good Indian writing and instituted the Book Awards, in 1998. It is the only Indian award that not only recognizes and rewards good writing but also actively promotes the authors and their books.

The 2008 Awards:
The Vodafone Crossword Book Award for 2008 will be given out in the following categories :-
1. Best Work in English Fiction
2. Best Work in Indian Language Fiction Translation
3. Best Work in English Non-Fiction.

Each Award will carry a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs, a trophy and a citation. In case of the Indian Language Fiction Translation category, the author and the translator share the prize money equally.

A 'Popular Award' has also been introduced; through which readers can vote for their favourite book shortlisted in the English Fiction and English Non-Fiction categories. The Popular Award entitles the winning author to a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh and a certificate.

Judges:
The valid entries consisting of books published between the period 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008 will be assessed by three independent panels of judges comprising academics, critics and authors, whose books are not eligible for the Awards.

Judges in the past have included eminent authors and personalities like Dilip Chitre, Paul Zacharia, Kiran Nagarkar, Vikram Chandra, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Urvashi Bhutalia, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Geeta Doctor, Harsh Sethi, Mukund Padmanabhan, Dilip Kumar, Nilanjana S. Roy, Kai Friese and Malashri Lal.

A shortlist of 5 books in each category will be announced on 25th of June 2009 at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre 7:00 pm onwards. The final prizes would be distributed at an awards function in July 2009.

The decision of the judges will be final.

Recognition for the Awards:
“Before the award, I was known as ‘a leading writer from Kerala’ or ‘a leading Malayali writer’. When I won the Crossword Award in 1999, the press qualified me as ‘a leading Indian writer’. Yes, this is what the award means to me. All of a sudden, it transforms a regional writer like me into a national writer. The Vodafone Crossword Book Award gives us writers a new identity and an unflinching self-confidence. Bravo!”

- M. Mukundan, winner of the 2006 Indian Language Fiction Translation Award for ‘Kesavan’s Lamentations’.

“While any talk of literary awards, especially Indian writing in English, eventually leads to Bookers, Whitbreads and Pulitzers — in spite of our very own Sahitya Akademi and Jnanpith awards — Vodafone Crossword Book Award is slowly but surely gaining prominence as a veritable Indian version of the Booker prize.

In fact, many Indian authors are appreciating this as a gesture of Indian books being lauded by Indians.

Essentially, this is what the Vodafone Crossword Book Award aims to do. Instituted in 1998, it wants to compete with the biggies. In fact, it's already out to give the other awards some serious competition”

- 'Naipaul, Rushdie in Indian Booker race', CNN-IBN (www.ibnlive.com), 18th January 2006.

Eligibility Criteria

Best Work in English Fiction
- Entries must be works of prose fiction, excluding children and teenage fiction.
- Entries can be full-length novels or collections of short stories by one author.
- Entries must be original works in English.
- Entries must be published within the period 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008.
- Collections of short stories should also be published between the period 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008.
- The authors of the books must be Indian citizens or persons of Indian origin.
- The authors must be alive on the closing date for the entries.
- Entries must be made by the publishers and the last date for receiving the entry forms is 28th February 2009.

Best work in Indian Language Fiction Translation

- Entries must be works of prose fiction, excluding children and teenage fiction.
- Entries can be full-length novels or collections of short stories by one author.
- Entries must be English translations of works in any Indian language written after 1947.
- The translated works must be published within the period 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008.
- The authors and the translators of the books must be Indian citizens or persons of Indian origin.
- The translator must be alive on the closing date for the entries.
- Entries must be made by the publishers and the last date for receiving the entry forms is 28th February 2009.

Best Work in English Non-Fiction
- Entries must be works of non-fiction, in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography, sociology, anthropology, ecology and the arts.
- Entries can be full-length books or collections of essays or articles by one author.
- Entries must be original works in English.
- Entries must be published within the period 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008.
- The authors of the books must be Indian citizens or persons of Indian origin.
- The authors must be alive on the closing date for the entries.
- Entries must be made by the publishers and the last date for receiving the entry forms is 28th February 2009.