Giller Prize Obamas Book Podcast Banaras Literature Festival Omar Musa

From Australia’s richest literary prizes to a former US President’s intimate book conversations and India’s vibrant literary festival scene, this week’s Book Bytes brings you stories from the world of books and ideas.

Former US President Barack Obama is launching a new Audible podcast, ‘A Great Book with Barack Obama’, premiering September 24. The six-episode series, produced with Higher Ground, features Obama in conversation with six yet-to-be-announced guests about novels that shaped his worldview. The curated list spans American classics and spy thrillers: James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, and John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Novelist, poet and rapper Omar Musa won Australia’s most prestigious fiction prize, the $60,000 (approximately ₹29.4 lakh) Miles Franklin Literary Award, for his second novel Fierceland. The judges praised the novel as “a tour de force” that “refashions the venerable, vernacular hikayat traditions of Malay storytelling into new Australian idioms.” The family epic follows two siblings returning to Malaysian Borneo to reckon with the legacy of their late father, a palm oil baron. His win follows Malaysian-born author Siang Lu’s 2025 victory.

Writing Australia revealed the shortlist for the 2026 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the nation’s richest literary prize. From 673 entries across six categories—Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult Literature, Children’s Literature, Poetry, and Australian History—expert panels have selected standout works. Among those shortlisted are Karen Foxlee’s The Wondrous Tale of Lavender Wolfe (Children’s), Robbie Coburn’s The Foal in the Wire (Young Adult), Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot (Poetry), and Merlinda Bobis’s In the Name of the Trees (Fiction). Winners will receive $80,000 tax-free per category, with a total prize pool of $600,000 (approximately ₹3.36 crore). The winners will be announced on September 10, 2026, at the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

The Banaras Lit Fest has opened nominations for the Third BLF Book Awards 2027, accepting entries from August 15 to October 31, 2026. Recognising excellence in Hindi and English, the awards cover Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Translation—including the Premchand Award and the Ruskin Bond Award. Winners receive INR 51,000, a trophy, and a citation, with special honours like the Bhartendu Harishchandra Lifetime Achievement Award (INR 1,00,000). Eligible books must be published between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2026. The longlist drops on December 25, with the ceremony set for February 7, 2027, during the 5th Banaras Lit Fest. The festival will host over 300 writers and 75 sessions across eleven Indian languages.

One of Canada’s top book awards, the Giller Prize, has secured its future following a major philanthropic gift, reports Publishers Weekly’s Ed Nawotka. After cutting ties with long-time sponsor Scotiabank last year amid protests over the bank’s Israel ties, the prize faced an uncertain future. While a bid for CDN $5 million in government funding did not materialize, the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation has now gifted the prize a total of CDN $5 million—following an initial CDN $1 million “bridge” gift earlier this year—to sustain operations for several years. The Giller gives CDN $100,000 to its winner and CDN $10,000 to each shortlisted title. In a significant restructuring, the prize jury will now consist exclusively of independent booksellers rather than authors and critics. This year’s shortlist will be announced on September 8.