The 2026 edition of the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman will be awarded in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Debut (including both fiction and nonfiction titles), and Lifetime Achievement. The shortlist was announced on Thursday.
The winners, including the Lifetime Achievement award, will be announced later in the day and the winners will be felicitated on December 2.
This year’s jury comprises Santwana Bhattacharya, Editor, The New Indian Express Group; K Vaidyanathan, Editor, Dinamani; and Ravi Shankar, Consulting Editor, Sunday Magazine.
Here are the shortlisted books in each category:
Fiction
Ghost Eye, Amitav Ghosh
Once Elephants Lived Here, Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Railsong, Rahul Bhattacharya
The Ayodhya Alliance, Ashwin Sanghi
Best Nonfiction
God’s Own Empire: The Extraordinary Life of Marthanda Varma of Travancore, Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat
The Hindi Heartland: A Study, Ghazala Wahab
Believer’s Dilemma: Vajpayee and the Hindu Right’s Path to Power, 1977–2018, Abhishek Choudhary
Who Owns the Past?: How Historians [Re]Wrote India’s Past and Present, 1870-2020, Shaan Kashyap
Best Debut
Allah Miyan’s Workshop, Mohsin Khan, translated from the Urdu by Maaz Bin Bilal
Never Logged Out: How the Internet Created India’s Gen Z, Ria Chopra
The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past, Sowmiya Ashok
The Remnants of Rebellion, Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew