Q&A with Poonam Saxena, Crossword Book Awards 2025 Jury: What makes a book unforgettable, and a longlist worth remembering

Poonam Saxena, jury member for the Crossword Book Awards 2025, reflects on the year’s translations: a category that opened windows into many lives, past and present. From stories of rebellion and intolerance to tales of friendship and love, the submissions captured both the turbulence and tenderness of our times. 

Poonam Saxena is a journalist, writer and translator. She has had a distinguished career with The Hindustan Times, where she launched and edited the HT Sunday magazine, Brunch. She translates from Hindi to English, and her translations include Dharmvir Bharati's ‘Gunahon ka Devta’ (Chander & Sudha, Penguin Viking), Rahi Masoom Raza's ‘Scene: 75’ (HarperCollins), and ‘The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told’ (Aleph). She was also the co-author of filmmaker Karan Johar's memoir 'An Unsuitable Boy’(Penguin).

The jury reads a huge number of submissions in a limited time, what was your approach to reading so widely and still giving each book its due?

I began reading the books almost as soon as they arrived. I didn’t want to rush through them. I also kept a notebook handy and jotted down my thoughts as I read each book. I’m a big note-taker and I think unless you put pen to paper you forget things and your ideas don’t have clarity.

If literature reflects its time, what did this year’s Children's Books submissions tell you about the world we’re living in?

I think the books cover a wide spectrum, highlighting and mirroring our concerns and the times we live in, from women’s lives, their anger and rebellion, to the dominance of consumerism and the free market in our society, from the rise of communalism and religious intolerance to tender adolescent friendships or same-sex love. It’s a difficult world we live in, but not without all hope – I hope! A few of the books we got were set or written in the past, something I always find interesting – how we lived then, what the times were like, I find it endlessly fascinating.  

What was the toughest part of arriving at a longlist from such a wide range of submissions?

Too many books competing to get in!

If you had to describe this year’s longlist in three words, what would they be?

Haunting, powerful, engrossing.

In a time of endless content, what do you think makes literature still worth turning to?

I am not a big fan of ‘content.’ I find what generally passes off as ‘content’ to be empty and exhausting, giving no nourishment for the heart, mind or soul. Everything is not there to be ‘consumed.’ You need to sit with a book, a good, thoughtfully-written book to feel enriched. To just enjoy yourself. There is nothing that gives me more joy and satisfaction than literature. There is nothing that can reduce life’s inevitable burdens the way literature can. That can make you forget everything but what you’re reading. I read every day, obsessively, usually three or four books at a time. New books, old books, favourites, everything.

What, to you, makes a book unforgettable?

You know, the first rule is that a book mustn’t bore you. You should get sucked into it. You should remember it after you finish it. It should prod you to think. It should bring you some happiness, even if it’s an unsettling book. You should want to go back to it and read it again. You should want it permanently on your shelves.

As a jury member, what advice would you give to aspiring Indian writers hoping to be recognized in the coming years?

Work hard on your writing. Don’t be lazy. Read. Remember, every voracious reader is a potential author. If you don’t read widely, how will you write well?