Patiala News:Punjab Language Department announces Best Punjabi Book Awards for the year 2026
Awards will be given to the 10 best books in various genres.
Under the Best Book Awards given by the Punjab Government to books in Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu languages every year through the Language Department, Punjab, the department has announced the Best Punjabi Book Awards (2026) for Punjabi language. In this regard, Director, Language Department, Punjab S. Jaswant Singh Zafar said that these awards will be given during the state-level inauguration ceremony of Punjabi Month in the first week of November 2026 at Bhasha Bhawan, Patiala. He said that for these awards, books published during the last year (2025) were sought for the Best Punjabi Book Awards and these books were evaluated by learned subject experts from different fields and the best books were selected. In this award, a prize money of Rs. 31,000/- will be presented along with a citation and a plaque of honor. It is worth mentioning that these awards will be given to 10 best Punjabi books related to different varieties of Punjabi language published in the year 2025. 282 books from various genres were received for these awards.
The best Punjabi book awards announced include Bhai Vir Singh Award (Biography/Autobiography/Memoirs/Drawings) for Dr. Ranjit Singh’s book ‘Koi Nau Na Jaane Mera (Aap Beitian)’, Nanak Singh Award (Novel) for Jaspal Mankhera’s book ‘Haveliala’, Prince Sujan Singh Award (Story/Mini Story Collection) for Bhupinder Singh Mann’s book ‘Lal Ratta’, Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari Award (Essay/Travelogue/Satire) for Ajay Tanvir’s book ‘Jadunagari De Jadugar’, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir Award (Poetry) for Dr. Navdeep Kaur’s book ‘Ahilya’, Ishwar Chandra Nanda Award (Drama/Single) for Kulbir Malik’s book ‘Dak Nit Aankhedi…’, Prof. Gurdial Singh Award (Translation) will be given to Jang Bahadur Goyal’s book ‘Jangal To Paar (Sita Ratnamal)’, M.S. Randhawa Award (Knowledge Literature/Editing) to Prin. Lovely S. Pannu’s book ‘Puadhi Lok-Kavi (Tappe Aar Jakkariyaan)’, Sri Guru Harkrishan Award (Children’s Literature) to Hari Krishna Mair’s book ‘Plastic Da Daddu’ and Dr. Atar Singh Award (Criticism/Research) to Dr. Dharam Singh’s book ‘Pragat Bhaye Gur Tegh Bahadur’.
S. Jaswant Singh Zafar said that the best book awards of different languages given by the department every year will be given during the Punjabi month celebrations. The remaining awards of Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit will be announced soon. He congratulated all the award winners and appealed to continue making continuous efforts for the promotion of Punjabi language.