2016 Highlights: The year for Indian authors

Ace tennis star Sania Mirza launched her autobiography 'Ace Against Odds' in 2016. Here are a few autobiographies which you cannot miss to read.
(Pic Credit: Sania Mirza/ via Facebook)

Renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev announced his autobiography titled 'Being Baba Ramdev' in 2016. The book would be co-authored by Baba Ramdev and senior journalist Uday Mahurkar. The autobiography is expected to hit the bookstores in 2017. Click here to read more details about Being Baba Ramdev.

Popular Indian author Chetan Bhagat wrote through a female's perspective for the first time in his book 'One Indian Girl'. Even though Bhagat was trolled on social media for this book, we cannot deny that it sold like hot cakes. Read Chetan Bhagat's exclusive interview where he talks about his books, being trolled and more.
(Pic Credit: Chetan Bhagat/ via Facebook)

Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi turned author in 2016 with his book 'A Kiss of Life'. Hashmi co-authored the book with Bilal Siddqi. 'A Kiss of Life' which​ narrates the tough battle Hashmi's son's fought against cancer and survived. Click to read the book's review.
(Pic Credit: Emraan Hashmi/ via Facebook)

Birthday of former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, October 15th, will now be celebrated as 'Maharashtra Reading Day' in the state from 2016 onwards.
Here are all the details.
(Pic Credit: Google)

Write India is India's largest-ever crowd-sourced short story contest which was conceptualised and launched by Vinita Dawra Nangia in 2015. A year later, Write India Season 1 concluded in June, 2016 on a high note. India's 11 bestselling authors came together for Season 1 which included Amish Tripathi, Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian, Preeti Shenoy, Tuhin A Sinha, Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Datta, Madhuri Banerjee, Jaishree Misra, and Anita Nair. Click here to know more.

Indian poster boy, author Durjoy Datta tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend Avantika Mohan in 2016. What's more, his proposal was a gala event in itself. Read the whole story here.
(Pic Credit: Durjoy Datta/ via Facebook)

'Love is Always Right' is a compilation of Vinita Dawra Nangia's weekly column O-Zone, in The Times of India on contemporary living and relationships. It was launched by designers Ravi Bajaj and Suneet Varma, while Write India author-mentor Jaishree Misra moderated the event. Read the full coverage here.

Eminent writer and social activist Mahashweta Devi passed away on 28 July, 2016 due multiple organ failure in a hospital in Kolkata. She was 90.
Here's the full report.
(Pic Credit: Google)

A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India by Josy Joseph was released on July 10, 2016. The author has penned down two decades of his work as an investigative journalist to expose some of India's biggest scams. In fact, Jet Airways and its founder-chairman Naresh Goyal filed a civil defamation suit of INR 1000 crore on Joseph and Harper Collins, after Joseph wrote about the alleged links between the airlines and gangster Dawood Ibrahim in his book.

Acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh launched his book The Great Derangement: Climate Change And The Unthinkable. As the title suggests, the book talks extensively about climate change being the need of the hour.
Here's the book review.

Indian author and Booker-prize winner Arundhati Roy made news in 2016 for coming out with her second book after a long gap of 19 years! Her publisher, Penguin Books UK, announced on Twitter that Roy's second novel 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' would release in June 2017. Click to read more details.
(Pic Credit: Google)

Two years after the release of a comic book on rape victims-turned-superheroes, the creators of 'Priya's Shakti' launched a sequel in 2016. This new comic book titled 'Priya's Mirror' features the stories of real-life acid attack survivors in India and around the world. Click to read the full detail.
(Pic Credit: Priya Shakti/ via Facebook)

A biography on the sensational Bollywood actress Rekha by Yasser Usman was released in 2016.
Click here for the excerpts from the book.
(Pic Credit: Google)

India's beloved author Ruskin Bond launched his eight new stories in a new book titled 'Death Under The Deodars: The Adventures of Miss Ripley-Bean'. The book was released after a long hiatus from the writer.
(Pic Credit: Google)

TOI Write India, the largest platform for crowd-sourced writing, concluded with a grand finale in Mumbai on 13 November, 2016. Write India Stories book that has a compilation of the top 36 winning stories, was launched. You can place your order at Amazon and Flipkart. Click to read the full-report about Write India Finale.

Twinkle Khanna's second book and first short story collection 'The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad' became a bestseller instantly after its release in October 2016. Read our review of the book here.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released India 2016, the 60th of edition of the annual digest of the country's progress in different fields. The book is published by the Government of India.
Read about the book launch here.
(Pic Credit: Google)

India's beloved author Ruskin Bond is announced as the first author-mentor for Write India Season 2. The second season of the largest ever crowd-sourced short story writing campaign will begin in 2017. He was felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Times LitFest Delhi. Here's all that happened at the Write India session at Times Lit Fest Delhi 2016.

Noted English novelist Jerry Pinto is named for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2016 for his debut novel 'Em and the Big Hoom'.
Here's a list of all the authors named for the prestigious award.