The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Book Award (2014–present)) is an Indian book award hosted by

Crossword Bookstores Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is an Indian List of bookstore chains, chain of bookstores headquartered in Mumbai. As of today, Crossword has stores in Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, ...

and their sponsors. The Award was instituted in 1998 by Indian book retailer

Crossword A crossword (or crossword puzzle) is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of cl ...

with the intention of competing with

The Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

The Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

History and administration

According to the website of the Crossword Bookstore, :"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." Nominations are on the basis of sales as tracked by Crossword, and the eventual winners are chosen based on a public poll that's partly online and partly real world (voting at Crossword outlets). As of 2018, the awards consist of (3

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

or $3,000) for winners in the jury award category, and (1

or $1,500) for winners in the popular choice category. The award was initially for a single work of fiction by an Indian citizen. In 2000, an additional prize was offered for an Indian writing in any Indian language translated into English. There was no award between 2001–03. Starting in 2004 the award was sponsored by

Hutch Essar Vodafone India was the Indian subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group and was a provider of telecommunications services in India with its operational head office in Mumbai. As of March 2018, Vodafone India had a market share of 21%, and with ...

an Indian telecommunications company and called the Hutch Crossword Book Award. Starting in 2006 additional categories of a nonfiction prize and a popular award, voted on by the public, were added. Starting in 2008, Hutch Essar was purchased by English telecommunications company

Vodafone Group Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and ...

and the award was called Vodafone Crossword Book Award. Beginning in 2011 through 2013, it was sponsored by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' in association with Principal Mutual Funds and

Standard Chartered Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in th ...

, and renamed the Economist Crossword Book Award. Beginning in 2014, it was sponsored by the

Raymond Group Raymond Group is an Indian branded fabric and fashion retailer, incorporated in 1925. It produces suiting fabric, with a capacity of producing 31 million meters of wool and wool-blended fabrics. The group owns apparel brands like Raymond, Prem ...

Winners

Previous winners.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Crossword Book Award
Indian literary awards Awards established in 1998 Translation awards 1998 establishments in India