Introduced in 2006, the awards in this category have been won by poets, short story writers and playwrights. The volume of entries has grown exponentially over the years and has explored a diversity of styles and themes – from performance poetry to science fiction. The composition of the jury for these awards includes poets, literary critics, novelists, journalists, scholars and teachers from different parts of the country.
The Toto Awards – Class of 2026
14/02/2026
Another incredible season with close to a thousand entries across our six categories and some truly fearless expressions pushing the envelope of creativity and taking things to a new level.
We’re just blown away and full of excitement about what these amazing artists have in store for the world.
It was a great opportunity to have all the shortlisters in the same room to celebrate each other and catch a glimpse of the shortlisted work at the 2026 awards ceremony last evening at BIC, Bengaluru. It is always heartening to see artists, writers, photographers, filmmakers sharing space, sharing energies and jamming ideas and thoughts. More than anything else, having a good time!
To the 10 winners who took the awards – congratulations, enjoy and savour this moment! To those who didn’t, and to the extended longlist, we hope to see you applying with more work next year. These are just the beginnings and you are all on your way to some groundbreaking things! Let’s all stay in touch and collaborate on your next big idea.
A big thank you to the TFA trustees and team for getting things together through the season and for the awards evening.
The Toto Awards are supported by Badri Vishal (Music), Nabonita Majumdar and Sarita Vellani (Creative Writing English), Rohan Kothari (Photography), Bhoomija Trust (Kannada), and The Aroon Raman Family (Short Film).
Presenting, the Toto Awards Class of 2026 !
Amoli Birewar (Short Film)
Shubham Negi (Short Film)
Kaafi Aalsi (Music)
Inshallah Babes (Music )
Agraj Nagarkoti (Photography)
Shashwat Das (Photography)
Akshita Sinha (Digital Art)
Nabha Okkunda (Creative Writing – Kannada)
Ifaam Bashir (Creative Writing – English)
Bhumika Sanjeev (Creative Writing – English)
See you next year, Call for applications will open in July 2026 for the 2027 Awards.
The TOTO Awards for Creative Writing in English are supported by Naboneeta Majumdar
(in memory of Dipali and Nitai Majumdar) & Sarita Vellani
Past Winners
Jayant Kashyap & Pranava VS (2025)
Zainab Ummer Farook, Faiz Ahmad (2024)
Moachiba Jamir, Aparna Chivukula (2023)
Aswin Vijayan, Uday Kanungo (2022)
Kunjana Parashar, Amulya B (2021)
Riddhi Dastidar, Noor Niamat Singh (2020)
Swati Simha, Shreya Ila Anasuya (2019)
Maya Palit, Urvashi Bahuguna (2018)
Arvind Jayan, Sohini Basak (2017)
Tushar Jain, Danish Shaikh (2016)
Mohit Parikh, Kaushik Viswanath (2015)
Rohan Chhetri, Mihir Vatsa (2014)
Swetanshu Bora, Aditi Rao (2013)
Ramneek Singh, Joshua Muyiwa (2012)
Deepika Arwind, Ishita Basu Mallik (2011)
Abhishek Majumdar, Ram Ganesh Kamatham (2010)
Aditi Machado, Neel Chaudhuri (2009)
Anindita Sengupta, Arka Mukhopadhyay (2008)
Monica Mody, Sneha Rajaram (2007)
Nisha Susan, Shakti Bhatt, SS Prasad (2006)