AutHer Awards: JK Paper & The Times of India celebrate women authors yet again

AutHer Awards is an initiative to honour women authors and their literary works. The setting was perfect as JK Paper and The Times of India presented the second edition of the AutHer Awards on March 17 at a glittering ceremony attended by the city’s book lovers and glitterati. The AutHer Awards are the first of their kind, aimed at encouraging and recognising women authors and celebrating the art of writing.Vinita Dawra Nangia, Executive Editor, Columnist and writer with The Times of India, Festival Director - Times Litfest, Write India and Literary Director of AutHer Awards, the most prestigious women author awards in India.
Women authors bring in refreshing perspectives and stories, which are the perfect mix of emotions and logic. Each word reflects brilliance, passion and has in it the potential to move the world. “The question is not, and never has been, whether women are better writers than men or vice versa,” said Nangia. “But women must be read as authors without prejudice ascribed to their gender.”
JK Paper and The Times of India came together once again this year, despite the pandemic, to celebrate the contributions of women authors who have, despite all biases, added value and creativity to this space. The campaign invited women authors and publishers to send in books of women authors published between December’19 and November’20. Despite all restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, over 1000 entries were received – a whopping increase of 25 per cent over last year. The entries were received across four categories – Best Fiction, Best Non- Fiction, Best Debutant, Best Children’s Author.

The evening began with a lot of fervour, witnessing eminent personalities from the world of literature. Welcoming the guests of the evening, Nangia thanked them for making it to the event braving the Corona threat. “Sometimes you need to take a small step, which you hope will become a giant leap to the right a wrong of centuries. JK Paper and Times of India have taken such a step last year by launching AutHer Awards. Women have been writing amazing books for centuries. But somehow, they have not got the same accolades as their male counterparts get. In shortlists for awards, not just do male authors dominate, but also the books shortlisted have predominantly male characters!”
Congratulating the winners and book lovers, Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice-Chairman and MD, JK Paper Ltd, said, “One of the benefits of the forced lockdown has been that lots of people got back to reading. The romance and pleasure of reading physical books is back. This year when we were planning this award ceremony, I was apprehensive about the physical event given the pandemic situation. I am very pleased that this event is happening. We hope the award recognises the best in women authors, encourages more women not just to write but to express themselves, to express their feelings and bring them into the world.”
Sharing his ideas about patriarchal mindsets, engineer, innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuk, who graced the evening as the chief guest, said, “Women have stories to tell. But when it comes to awards, men matter the most. Women are homemakers because of their compassionate, empathetic, peaceful nature of solving problems. If we can inculcate womanly nature in men, a lot of problems will be over. Compassion should take over brute force. If I have my way, I would like to see the world run by women, led by women. If the world can be managed by women, it would be a much better place to live in.” Sudha Natrajan, Director, BCCL, said, “Not only writers who pour all that magic into their words, the characters that they create also inspire us. When you read a book, the book speaks back to you. Books have evolved over time.”
The jury for these awards comprised of esteemed chair jury members Anand Neelakantan (best fiction), Kishwar Desai (best non-fiction), Kulpreet Yadav (best debutant), Archana Garodia Gupta (best children’s author). Other jury members included Jonathan Kennedy and TahiraKashyap (best fiction), Hindol Sengupta and Rakshanda Jalil(best non-fiction), Dr Shelja Sen and Janaki Sabesh (best children’s category), Devapriya Roy and Ratna Joshi (best debut category)
Singhania and Wangchuk presented the Awards to the winners. Amidst tough competition among a host of creative authors, Jahnavi Barua was adjudged the best author for her book Undertow in the Best Fiction category. Madhavi S Mahadevan was declared the runner-up in the fiction category for her book Bride of the Forest. In the Non-Fiction category, Shylashri Shankar won the hearts of the jury members for her book Turmeric Nation. Lavanya Lakshminarayan won the Best Author-Debut award for her book Analog Virtual along with Deepa Anappara, who got it for her book Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line. The Popular Choice award was shared by Preeti Shenoy for her book When Love Came Calling and Anuja Chandramouli for her book Mohini – The Enchantress.
Renowned historian Romila Thapar was chosen for the Lifetime Achievement Award. In a message, Thapar fondly recalled her family association with The Times of India. Heaping praise on the authors, A S Mehta, President and Director, JK Paper, said that, “Authors leave a lasting impression on the minds of the readers who read your books. I hope that we meet next year with a much larger audience with the renewed and even bigger response.”
Debasish Ganguly, marketing and communications head, JK Paper, said, “Over 1000 entries in just 2nd year of its inception shows the power of idea and vision behind AutHer Awards. We strongly believe that this will further strengthen its foundation in the coming years and bring to you new age of women authors and their inspiring stories.”
With more than 65 renowned personalities getting associated with the two-year journey of the AutHer awards, this initiative is undoubtedly getting a lot of success among young readers and aspiring women authors. All the more impressive is the fact that the initiative witnessed 65 lakh impressions, more than 50 thousand unique visitors on the website and more than 55 hundred public votes for the popular choice award.
A contextual TV episode to create awareness about the awards initiative was also telecast, which witnessed the presence of authors Anita Nair, Preeti Shenoy, Anuja Chauhan, along with Vinita Nangia, and V Kumaraswamy, CFO JK Paper deliberating on the topic ‘What shift has literature seen due to the pandemic – reflection, introspection and sensibilities’.
AutHer Awards, with two successful seasons, has created an extremely strong connection with its followers, which is the book-loving community on its social media platforms through several new and unique engagement initiatives. Besides the 8 book reading sessions that were highly appreciated by the readers, interesting facts about women authors, their books and lives through the ‘Fact of the week’ initiative, powerful quotes from well-known books written by women authors and the very unique and extremely powerful initiative of MastHer Class which has been conceptualised as an initiative to encourage, guide and mentor inspiring young authors with the help of the eminent and established authors who share their learnings, experiences and real-life situations with the learners, have all made the AutHer Awards an extremely successful endeavour that will surely go a long way in recognising the women authors for their work as well as inspiring the budding writers to do well. You can check the highlights of the exhilarating evening and the list of announced winners here.
Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of JK Paper by Times Internet’s Spotlight team