Recognition for the Hutch Crossword Book Awards:

"Winning the Hutch Crossword Award was one of the high points of my writing life and the reason for that is that there is no Award like the Crossword Award…The thing about the Crossword Award is that we know who the jury is, we may not know before hand, but we do see afterwards. These are our peers and there's something spectacularly wonderful about being judged by your peers. For me, it was deeply moving, it meant more to me than any other Award I've received."

- Amitav Ghosh, winner of the 2004 English Fiction prize for 'The Hungry Tide'

"Contrary to popular opinion, Crossword hasn't quite provided an Indian Booker. Instead, it has gone one better - demonstrated that there's enough good literature coming out of the country for us to have our own derby without looking longingly towards a western field of dreams."

- Nilanjana Roy, Business Standard

"I think what Crossword is doing is the last word in commercial heroism and generosity. Only a true book lover would give away money to encourage the highly endangered habit of reading."

- Mini Krishnan, Editor, Translations, Oxford University Press

"An award like the Hutch Crossword Book Award gives a writer something to strive for - winning it or even being chosen for the shortlist can be a validation of several years of hard, lonely work. The financial security offered by a cash prize can free up time to pursue the next novel, while the honour can lead even established writers to higher levels of achievement."

- Manil Suri, Author of 'The Death of Vishnu' and 'A Mathematician'

"…literature will always be a mosaic of the good, the bad and the mediocre. It will be a terrible day when somebody asks people to stop writing bad stuff. But what a major Award like the Hutch Crossword Award I am sure can do is to help sift the true from the false. I congratulate Crossword and Hutch for this wonderful service to the cause of writing in India."

- Paul Zacharia, Eminent Malayalam writer and essayist

"Inuagurated in 1998, it [the Hutch Crossword Book Award] is India's biggest private sector award."

- 'Rushdie, Naipaul shortlisted for Crossword award.' The Times of India, January 18 2006, Mumbai

"'There is no award like the Crossword award', says Amitav Ghosh who released the shortlist for the Hutch Crossword Book Award 2005… He claimed that the Crossword Awards shortlist was stronger than the Booker Prize list."

- 'There is no award like the Crossword Award', Mid-Day, January 18 2006, Mumbai

"Indians are getting recognition all over the world. Felicitation in one's own country is always welcome. The key is transparency in the criteria and judgment…The Hutch Crossword Awards are a great initiative as booksellers are the best people to institute a set of awards."

- Amitav Ghosh in a Hindustan Times interview, 'A sea change in publishing', January 22nd 2006, New Delhi

"While any talk of literary awards, especially Indian writing in English, eventually leads to Bookers, Whitbreads and Pulitzers - in spite of our very own Sahitya Akademi and Jnanpith awards - Hutch Crossword Book Award is slowing but surely gaining prominence as a veritable Indian version of the Booker prize.
In fact, many Indian authors are appreciating this as a gesture of Indian books being lauded by Indians.
Essentially, this is what the Hutch Crossword book award aims to do. Instituted in 1998, it wants to compete with the biggies. In fact, it's already out to give the other awards some serious competition"
- 'Naipaul, Rushdie in Indian Booker race', CNN-IBN (www.ibnlive.com), 18th January 2006.

"I have been communicating with some serious readers of literature in Paris, Australia and the US who wanted to know more and more about Bama and Dalit writing, thanks to the Crossword Awards."

- Sukrita Kumar, eminent poet and 2000 Judge in the category of Indian Language Fiction Translation

"It is a tremendous honour for me to be awarded the Crossword Award for English Fiction for 2001. India is a nation that appears to be bursting at the seams with prodigiously talented writers who have been winning every other literary award around the globe, and now seem just lining up for the next Nobel prize for literature. Merely to be included in their ranks is honour enough. To be acknowledged in this fashion is an overwhelming experience."

- Jamyang Norbu, winner of the 2000 English Fiction prize for 'The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes'

"I am absolutely thrilled to hear of my shortlisting for this best of Indian literary prizes. It is especially gratifying to me to be thus honored in the country of my birth - it means more to me than any number of prestigious overseas prizes."

- Suketu Mehta, on being shortlisted for the 2005 English Non-Fiction prize for his book 'Maximum City'.