UKHRUL: Arunachal Pradesh writer Subi Taba has won the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman 2025 for Best Fiction for her short story collection Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains, a work that foregrounds the lived experiences, myths and moral worlds of Arunachal Pradesh’s indigenous communities.
Instituted by the New Indian Express Group, the award was presented at a ceremony in Chennai by Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, in the presence of eminent jury members, writers and cultural figures. The citation described the collection as a luminous and deeply rooted work of fiction that brings marginalised geographies and voices into the centre of Indian literary imagination.
Tales from the Dawn-Lit Mountains is a widely acclaimed debut short story collection by Subi Taba, offering a lyrical blend of realism and myth rooted in the indigenous cultures of Arunachal Pradesh. Drawing deeply from local folklore, oral traditions and animistic belief systems, the book presents stories that move fluidly between the past and the present, where spirits, curses, ancestral memory and the natural world coexist with everyday human life.
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Set against forests, rivers and mountain villages, the narratives explore the intimate relationship between people and their land, while reflecting on cultural continuity and change. Through its evocative storytelling, the collection engages with themes of tradition and modernity, human–nature coexistence, spiritual belief, and the evolving social landscape of Northeast India.
The jury noted that through “spare, evocative prose”, Taba captures the emotional and moral universe of mountain communities with quiet intensity and empathy. The work was praised for expanding “the imaginative geography of Indian fiction” and reaffirming storytelling as an act of cultural preservation and renewal.
The collection emerged as the Best Fiction title in a highly competitive year, surpassing other shortlisted works including Heart Lamp by Bhanu Mushtaq, winner of the International Booker Prize, and The Girl with the Seven Lives by Vikas Swarup, author of Slumdog Millionaire. The recognition highlights the growing prominence of literary voices from India’s North-Eastern region in the national mainstream.
The Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman is among India’s most respected literary honours, celebrating narrative courage, authenticity and artistic excellence across languages and genres.