The Tata Literature Live! Literary Awards for 2021, which are one of the highlights of the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest was announced at the grand finale of the Festival which was held from 18 to 21 November 2021. The four-day Litfest, presented online for the second consecutive year, was a huge success, with the number of views across platforms crossing 3 million at last count.
The winners of the Tata Literature Live! Literary Awards are as follows:
Tata Literature Live! First Book Award – Fiction
- A Death in Shonagachhi by Rijula Das (Pan Macmillan)
Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award – Fiction
- Asoca: A Sutra by Irwin Allan Sealy (Penguin Random House)
Tata Literature Live! First Book Award – Non-Fiction
- Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian Drought by Kavitha Iyer (HarperCollins)
Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award – Non-Fiction
- Born A Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India by Ghazala Wahab (Aleph)
Tata Literature Live! Business Book of the Year Award
- Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy by Tamal Bandyopadhyay (Roli Books)
Tata Literature Live! Publisher of the Year Award
- HarperCollins
The annual Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021 was given to celebrated author Anita Desai, and the Festival’s Poet Laureate for 2021 was legendary poet Adil Jussawalla.
At this year’s Litfest, which included a two day festival especially for children, 145 participants covering 17 countries and 9 languages, took part in 57 sessions (ranging from literature to social sciences, economics, history, health, and environment) and 5 workshops (on the subjects of art, writing and conceptual poetry). In addition, there were 7 riveting performances on themes from food to Dante, to a disappearing poet, to First Nation languages.
The international stellar line up at the festival included Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Adil Jussawalla, Anne Enright, Steven Pinker, Nick Hornby, Shashi Tharoor, Indra Nooyi, David Baldacci, AshisNandy, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Vidya Dehejia, Martin Kemp, Rebecca Solnit, Ruskin Bond, Amish, Neena Gupta, Ashwin Sanghi, Matthew Weiner, Marlon James, Rutger Bregman, Matt Haig, Heather Morris, Dolly Thakore, Jonathan Drori, Farah Bashir, SanjenaSathian.
The Tata Group is the title sponsor of Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest and the festival will also be supported by a few other Tata companies. The festival was conceived by Anil Dharker (1947-2021) who was also the founder and festival director of Literature Live! which organizes the festival with the support of the Tata Group.
