The Shortlist
The Longlist
About the Awards
JK Paper and The Times of India joined hands in 2018 to bring to you, India’s most coveted Women AutHer Awards.
The awards celebrate the contributions of women authors who have, despite all the biases added value and creativity to this space. We wish to acknowledge and award such women authors so that more and more women take up writing and pen that first story and feel proud of their accomplishment.
Let us no longer hide behind pseudonyms and create the respectful space that women authors deserve.
Let’s celebrate the art of story-telling, encourage women authors to express their creativity and fondness for writing, and give them a platform to be recognised.
The last 4 editions have seen more than 5000 entries across 5 awards categories, and immersive multi–city book reading sessions (physical and virtual). With more than 70 eminent personalities being associated over the last four years’ awards journey, JK Paper and The Times of India proudly present Season 5 of AutHer Awards.
Awards Categories
Best Fiction
Best Non-Fiction
Best Children’s Author
Best Debut Author
Popular Choice
Best Manuscript
Important Dates
Submissions Open: 27th Oct, 2023
Deadline: 15th December 2023
Evaluation: Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar
Award’s Night: 17th March 2024
Jury Members
Her most recent books are Orienting: An Indian in Japan and Jakarta Tails: The Continuing Adventures of Soyabean and Tofu. Pallavi also the author of the 2008 China-memoir, Smoke and Mirrors, which won the Vodafone-Crossword Popular award. Her 2011 novel, Chinese Whiskers, a modern fable set in Beijing, was published in the United States, Italy, Belgium and India. She was lead author of a special Lonely Planet guide to China for the Indian market.
Her book on contemporary Europe's crises, Punjabi Parmesan: Dispatches from a Europe in Crisis, was published in the United States as New Old World: An Indian Journalist Discovers the Changing Face of Europe. It was selected as one of 2016's best books on Europe, by Foreign Affairs magazine. Other books include Babies and Bylines: Parenting on the Move, Choked, an in-depth look at the crisis of air pollution in New Delhi and Beijing and the anthology, A Thousand Cranes for India: Reclaiming Plurality Amid Hatred.
Pallavi was selected by the World Economic Forum as a 2014 Young Global Leader. She was also a member of the Forum’s Global Future Council on Information, Media and Entertainment between 2016-2018.
Vikas has been a jury member for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival. He hosted 78 episodes of a popular weekly programme on foreign affairs called ‘Diplomatic Dispatch’ on India’s parliamentary channel, Sansad TV. Most recently he served as the inaugural Global Thought Leader in Residence at the University of Guelph. He has addressed institutions of excellence and prestigious forums all across the world from Google and IITs to Istanbul Brand Week and the Seoul Digital Forum. He has also written for numerous publications such as TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian (UK), The Telegraph (UK), Financial Times (UK), DNA (India), Outlook (India), and Liberation (France).
Vikas Swarup is the recipient of the US-India Business Council’s 34th Anniversary Award for ‘Cultural Ties That Bind’ and honorary doctorates from the University of South Africa in Pretoria, Carleton University in Ottawa, Concordia University in Montreal and the University of Guelph.
Singh’s interests range over various aspects of ancient Indian history and archaeology, the history of ideas, and India’s interactions with the wider world. She is the author of many books and her research papers have been published in Indian and international journals. She is the author of Kings, Brāhmaṇas, and Temples in Orissa: An Epigraphic Study (AD 300–1147) (1994), Ancient Delhi (1999), The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology (2004), A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the Twelfth Century (2008), The Idea of Ancient India: Essays on Religion, Politics, and Archaeology (2016), and Political Violence in Ancient India (2017). She has edited Delhi: Ancient History (2006), Rethinking Early Medieval India (2011); and has co-edited Ancient India: New Research (2009), Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories (2014), and Buddhism in Asia: Revival and Reinvention (2019). Her most recent books, published in 2021, are Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions, and The World of India’s First Archaeologist: Letters from Alexander Cunningham to J.D.M. Beglar.
Upinder has been a recipient of the Netherlands Government Reciprocal Fellowship, Ancient India and Iran Trust/Wallace India Visiting Fellowship, Daniel Ingalls Fellowship at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and Erasmus Mundus Fellowship at the University of Leuven. She was awarded the Infosys award for Social Sciences—History in 2009.
Introducing
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose
Literary Director
Host of TOI Bookmark, the Times of India’s marquee literary podcast; co-founder Ace Literary Consulting and Associate Professor, School of Modern Media Studies, UPES University. She is the founder of India’s most popular blog on the publishing industry and former Editorial Manager South Asia, Routledge (Taylor and Francis).
She has previously been Commissioning Editor and Marketing, Promotions, and Publicity Director, Zubaan (Kali for Women). She wrote the first book market report of India for Publishers Association UK. She has been a jury member for Crossword Book Awards, Scholastic Writing Awards, and mentored the Jaipur Lit Fest team of bloggers in 2019. She has also conceptualized the popular Scholastic Writers Academy programme.
Smita Mishra
Editorial Director
Smita Mishra is the Editor of Times of India Lifestyle, Times Food, and Times Travel. She is known for crafting in-depth and compelling features that blend storytelling with analysis. Her passion lies in exploring culinary arts, travel, style, relationships, health and literature through her writing. She leads TOI Books and oversees the editorial aspects of Times of India’s literary initiatives, such as Times Literature Festivals and AutHer Awards. Smita brings a wealth of expertise in the digital realm, stemming from her previous roles at Zee News, Dainik Jagran, and India Today. Her contributions have been pivotal in launching numerous online properties and making meaningful editorial enhancements.
Surabhi Rawat
Editorial Co-director
Surabhi Rawat is a lifestyle journalist currently working with Timesofindia.com. She has over 10 years of work experience and she has covered lifestyle, health, and entertainment beats. Currently, she covers Books, Soul Search, Arts, and Trending for The Times of India’s website and is also one of the core team members for AutHer Awards, Times Litfest, and TOI Write India.
Book Reading Sessions
About JK Paper
JK Paper’s legacy goes back to 1938 with setting up of Straw Products ltd. in Bhopal.
In the year 1962, Unit JKPM at Rayagada (Odhisa) was established. Today JK Paper is a leading Indian player in Office Papers, Coated Papers, Writing and Printing Papers and High-end Packaging Boards.
Today JK Paper has 3 integrated Pulp and Paper Mills viz; Unit JKPM at Rayagada (Odisha) near the Eastern coast of India and Unit CPM at Songadh (Gujarat) on the Western coast & Unit SPM at Kagaznagar, Telangana. With total installed capacity is 761,000 TPA, JK Paper is amongst the biggest Paper mills in the country.
From being the pioneer of branded Paper in India, the company today is a leading Sustainable Paper Product Solutions Provider.
About TOI
The Times of India is India’s most-read English newspaper. More than 17 million readers wake up to one of its 57 editions every morning. With a daily circulation of more than 4 million copies, it is the world’s largest-selling English newspaper. The Times of India’s website (www.timesofindia.com) ranks among the world’s most-visited news sites.
Published since 1838, the paper has shown no signs of aging and keeps reinventing itself to re`main in step with its young readership. Known as a trend-setter that adheres to the highest standards of journalism, The Times of India not only provides news coverage of unrivalled depth and breadth but also places equal, often greater, emphasis on perspective and context to empower the reader. Its coverage includes every topic and trend of interest to the reader – national, international, city, community, business, health, science, technology, sports, lifestyle and entertainment. Instead of taking the traditional role of newspapers to “mould public opinion”, The Times of India provides the choices that enable readers to arrive at their own conclusions.
The reader is the centre of its universe.