Oxford Bookstores has announced Devangana Dash as the winner of the 10th edition of Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize at a celebratory event held at India Habitat Centre on 4 April 2025. Dash was awarded for her cover design of Conversations with Aurangzeb published by Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins and authored by Charu Nivedita, translated from Tamil by Nandini Krishnan.
The winner was felicitated with a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh by a panel that included Alka Pande, museum curator, art historian, author and jury chair; Shashi Tharoor, author and member of Parliament; May-Elin Stener, ambassador of Norway to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, Anja Riedeberger, director Information Services South Asia Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan; Samar Jodha, installation artist, mentor, and TED speaker and Swagat Sengupta, CEO, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores, in the presence of designers, publishers, artists and literary enthusiasts from the industry.
Speaking at the ceremony, Devangana Dash thanked the 10th edition of the Oxford Bookstore Book Prize and its jury. “I extend my congratulations to the award committee for sustaining a space that celebrates good book design and ensures continued conversations around the visual language of books. Over the years, four of my book designs have been long-listed for this prestigious award, and it is truly exciting to receive this recognition. In a world inundated with visuals—where a single prompt can generate an image—the recognition of design and literary processes reaffirms the importance of dialog, debate, rejection, and the serendipitous victories that shape creative work. Book covers are often judged instantly but rarely understood or engaged with. I am grateful to HarperCollins India.”
In an interaction with Indian Printer & Publisher, Devangana Dash said, “My publisher told me that what sets this book (Conversations with Aurangzeb) apart is that it is slightly wild and playful with a deconstructional approach to story and narrative with fiction and not a non-fiction book on the ruler – the protagonist is conversing with the spirit of a dead emperor in a satire. I think that was all the motive that I needed, I played with that and that’s why you see that Aurangzeb doesn’t have any features, he’s actually a silhouette. There’s a slightly modern and playful take on the emperor himself.”
In the cover, she incorporated the design philosophy of optical art, Dash said, adding the initial inspiration was having an illusion which creates a conflict so there’s an intrigue – the title says Aurangzeb but the image doesn’t have the features of the emperor.
“I wanted to use jewel tones in this particular cover design, so you can see an Emerald Green and a Ruby Pink in contrast with black lines, Dash explained,” adding she wanted the background to have a geometric design. “I was initially working with archival and very realistic image of Aurangzeb which translated into a more illustrated and minimal approach. The final cover has been designed over multiple rounds and conversations with the team from HarperCollins which involved looking at my own work again and again and changing the design to suit the sensibility of the book. After this grueling process, in the end we literally had a winner,” she added.
In addition to the winning cover, two other designers were recognized by the jury for their command of graphics and visual narratives. These designers include Samar Bansal for the book, Feathers, Fools and Farts published by Puffin- an imprint of Penguin Random House; and Sharanya Kunnath for Epicurious published by Hachette India Children’s Books.
Announcing the winner, Alka Pande said, “I am delighted and impressed by the remarkable breadth, diversity and boundless creativity displayed by Indian designers. Their ability to weave together storytelling, innovation, aesthetics and visual appeal is nothing short of extraordinary. The sheer range of artistic expressions, from the intricately detailed to the boldly experimental, reaffirms the vibrancy of India’s design landscape.”
Tharoor recounted his experience of judging the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize over the last ten years, “The Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize is a very interesting prize because nothing like this existed before in India until the Oxford Bookstores decided to come up with this prize. The whole question of book covers getting their own recognition was overdue when we came up with this prize and it is a miracle that no one had thought of this earlier.
“We always talk of the cliché – Don’t judge a book by its cover. But, in reality, we know people are always judging books by their covers. For publishers, an attractive book cover becomes important because very often people are attracted by a cover to make their purchasing decisions. The book cover has to be strong – it has to have an arresting title, it has to have some strong visual elements, attractive typography, and a composition that gives the potential reader a cumulative effect,” he said.
