Overwhelming response to VoW Book Awards, 2025

Dr Tania Saili Bakshi

The 9th edition of the Valley of Words International Literature and Arts Festival, has received close to five hundred nominations for the coveted awards that will be given in eight categories during its Signature Event to be held in the last week of October, 2025.

The Vow Book Awards are an integral part of the Valley of Words Literary Festival: a literature and arts festival with a distinct multigenre, multilingual and intergenerational approach. 

With fifty-odd publishers. Over five hundred books have been nominated for the coveted awards setting a new record by receiving multiple nominations under eight categories in both Hindi and English.

In its ninth year running, the literary festival has grown in leaps and bounds creating new milestones along the way.  The festival has made its way on to the world map of Literary Festivals to contend with.

This year, the nomination form was shared on the official website of Valley of Words in mid-December 2024 and the last date for nomination was fixed at 15th March, 2025.

An overwhelming response was received from not only publishing houses but first-time authors as well as readers who nominated their favourite authors.

In the coming weeks, after a thorough review of all the nominated books, a long list of ten books in each category will be presented to the esteemed jury which consists of 2024, VoW Book Awards winners.

The jury will then have the uphill task of preparing the short list for the VoW Book Awards, 2025.

Festival Director Dr Sanjeev Chopra said: “I am overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response to the VoW Book Awards, which puts all naysayers to rest who say that books are not being written, published or read with the advent of social media. The quality and range of books across different genres is simply outstanding.” He further added, “The Secretariat and the Jury will be hard pressed to select books for the long list, short list and the eventual winner.”

Finally, post the announcement of the long list and short list, information regarding various verticals across the country and the announcement of the final winners under all eight categories will be shared on the Valley of Words website. All the winners will be awarded, in person, during the Signature event to be held in Dehradun on 25-26 October 2025.

With each passing year, the Valley of Words Literary Festival aka VoW along with its sponsors and institutional partners has taken the onus of celebrating the word and taking the fest to newer heights!

All information related to monthly events, longlist and shortlist will be available on the official website www.valleyofwords.org and their social media accounts.