The 16th edition of Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest concluded on a high note last night at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point, with the much-awaited presentation of the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards — one of the most prestigious annual recognitions in India’s literary landscape.
Celebrating its sixteenth uninterrupted year, the three-day festival (November 7–9) brought together over 120 novelists, poets, thinkers, and performers from 15 countries, captivating nearly 20,000 visitors with more than 30 engaging sessions spanning fiction, poetry, gender, law, technology, wellness, and social change.
Highlights of the festival included The Great Debate, Book in Focus, The Literary Quiz, and over 11 book launches, alongside seven workshops, theatre productions, and international musical performances. Under its Campus@360 initiative, the festival also extended its reach to colleges across Mumbai, while The Little Festival — a parallel segment curated for children aged 8–14 — saw over 2,500 students from schools and NGOs participate in storytelling sessions and workshops exploring subjects from music and nature to environment and even dental hygiene.
The festival’s most emotional moment came with the Godrej Lifetime Achievement Award being conferred upon acclaimed Hindi novelist and poet Vinod Kumar Shukla. Renowned Gujarati poet Sitanshu Yashaschandra was celebrated as the Godrej Poet Laureate for this edition.
Winners of the Godrej Literature Live! Literary Awards 2025:
- Book of the Year – Fiction: Island by Sujit Saraf (Speaking Tiger)
- Book of the Year – Non-Fiction: Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine by Dhirendra K. Jha (Simon & Schuster India)
- Best First Book – Fiction: The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao (Penguin Random House India)
- Best First Book – Non-Fiction: The Lucky Ones: A Memoir by Zara Chowdhary (Westland Books)
- Business Book of the Year: The Money Trap: Grand Fortunes and Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble by Alok Sama (Pan Macmillan India)
- Publisher of the Year: Penguin Random House India
The juries comprised eminent authors, journalists, academics, and industry leaders including Akhil Katyal, Anil Menon, Ayaz Memon, Manisha Girotra, and Sitaraman Shankar, among others.
Presented by Godrej Industries Group, in association with NCPA and powered by Florintree, Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest reaffirmed its stature as India’s premier celebration of words and ideas — a “LitFest by the Sea” where literature, performance, and thought converged to inspire a generation of readers and writers alike.
Meanwhile, The Little Festival, held in collaboration with the H T Parekh Foundation, filled the NCPA campus with laughter and curiosity as children engaged with books, storytelling, and creative workshops.
