The National Young Authors League 2026 proudly celebrates the winners of Young Author Launchpad Season 01, a remarkable group of writers whose books represent an extraordinary spectrum of imagination, knowledge, personal experience, poetry, education, self-development, spirituality, professional wisdom, and children’s storytelling. More than an acknowledgement of published work, this recognition celebrates the journeys behind the books: the courage to begin writing, the discipline to complete a manuscript, the vulnerability to share personal ideas, and the determination to allow those words to find readers. From established educators, entrepreneurs and professionals to exceptionally young authors taking their first steps into literature, this season demonstrates that there is no single age, background, profession, or path that defines an author.
Heartiest congratulations to all the winners of Young Author Launchpad Season 01. Each selected author brings a distinctive voice and purpose to the platform, reminding us that meaningful literature can emerge from a classroom, a corporate career, a childhood imagination, a deeply personal memory, a philosophical question, or simply the desire to communicate something that matters. Their achievements will be celebrated as part of the National Young Authors League 2026 at IIT Delhi, bringing these diverse literary journeys together on one platform.
Annem Saad — Machines, Meteorites and More
At just seventeen, Annem Saad represents an exciting new generation of science-fiction writers willing to question humanity’s growing relationship with technology. A Class 12 student with a love for science fiction, she contributes the story “In the Eye of Error” to the anthology Machines, Meteorites and More. Her story follows Sera, an engineer aboard an AI-controlled ship where automation has made human intervention almost unnecessary. When a violent storm overwhelms the automated systems, however, an almost-forgotten manual helm becomes the ship’s only hope. Through this compelling situation, Annem explores a deeply contemporary question: when technology fails, are human beings still prepared to take responsibility? Her selection celebrates not only youthful imagination but also the ability of young writers to engage intelligently with AI, choice, dependence, resilience, and human judgement.
Read Machines, Meteorites and More on Amazon
Dr. Devika S — As Long As It’s Black
Dr. Devika S is recognised for As Long As It’s Black: The Afro-American Women’s Musings Redefining Life, a literary work that foregrounds the voices, identities, struggles, reflections, and aspirations of Afro-American women. An academic, researcher, and writer whose interests span literature, gender, culture, travel, language, and identity, Dr. Devika approaches Black womanhood not as a fixed representation but through women’s own acts of interpretation and self-definition. The book examines the intersections of race, gender, society, everyday experience, resilience, resistance, and emotional and intellectual agency. By placing lived experiences at the centre, the work encourages readers to reconsider the ways identity is negotiated and narrated. Her recognition honours a literary contribution that combines academic depth with a continuing commitment to bringing diverse women’s voices into meaningful cultural and literary conversations.
Read As Long As It’s Black on Amazon
Rahul Manghat — A Story Written
Rahul Manghat receives recognition for A Story Written, a deeply emotional romance centred on Rahul and Niranjana and a connection that arrives quietly, grows intensely, breaks painfully, and refuses to disappear completely. Known for writing at the intersection of mythology, philosophy, identity, and human emotion, Rahul asks through this novel whether two souls can truly belong to one another when circumstances repeatedly pull them apart. Inspired by the timeless essence of Shiva and Sati, the story moves beyond conventional romance into questions of destiny, devotion, separation, forgiveness, memory, and emotional permanence. Rahul’s wider literary journey, including The Origin of Ten Fires and The Six Faces of Fire, demonstrates his fascination with ancient ideas and the unseen forces shaping human behaviour. A Story Written brings that philosophical sensitivity into the intimate world of love and longing.
Read A Story Written on Amazon
Sanjeev Panackal Thomas — Half-Footed Hero
Sanjeev Panackal Thomas is celebrated for Half-Footed Hero: A Tale of a Lovedale Boy (1971–1979), a candid and deeply reflective memoir about growing up at The Lawrence School, Lovedale. Sanjeev revisits a formative world of misty hills, friendship, rivalry, discipline, mischief, triumph, humiliation, ambition, and uncertainty, looking at childhood not merely with nostalgia but with the perspective of a man trying to understand how those experiences shaped everything that followed. An engineer, business leader, entrepreneur, author, and artist, his later life would take him through corporate leadership in India and overseas, entrepreneurship, art, and writing. Yet Half-Footed Heroreturns to the boy behind those achievements. Its title beautifully captures resilience without certainty and the struggle to find balance when life does not provide a perfectly level playing field.
Read Half-Footed Hero on Amazon
Apeksha Gupta — You Have to Decide
Apeksha Gupta is recognised for You Have to Decide: 7 Career Directions to Help You Find Where You Truly Belong, a timely career-focused work intended particularly for new graduates and junior college students trying to navigate choices beyond conventional career pathways. Publicly sharing the news of her selection, Apeksha described the book as close to her heart and designed to help younger readers navigate career decisions and prepare themselves to thrive in today’s changing market. She is also identified publicly as a GITAM PhD scholar working in sustainable and green logistics. The book’s premise gives particular relevance to an era in which students face an expanding range of professions, skills, technologies, and expectations but often lack clarity about where they personally belong. Her recognition celebrates writing that aims to convert uncertainty into informed, self-aware decision-making.
The book has been announced for traditional publishing and was described publicly as coming soon to online marketplaces; I could not verify a live purchase page yet.
Chella Pandian Pitchai — Find Your Next Best Version (NBV)
Chella Pandian Pitchai, widely known as CPP, is honoured for Find Your Next Best Version (NBV), a practical self-development book built around continuous personal growth. A leader, author, leadership coach, TEDx speaker, and advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and culture, Chella brings decades of professional experience into a philosophy that asks readers to become a better version of themselves through small but purposeful actions. The book explores self-awareness, leadership, mindset, confidence, emotional resilience, purpose, relationships, inclusion, belonging, humanity, and sustainable personal transformation. Rather than presenting improvement as a dramatic one-time reinvention, NBV treats growth as a continuing practice. Written to speak across generations and professions, the book seeks to become a reflection companion for students, professionals, entrepreneurs, leaders, parents, and anyone committed to evolving with intention.
Read Find Your Next Best Version on Amazon
Vandana Mehrotra — You Can Do It
Vandana Mehrotra is recognised for You Can Do It, a practical and experience-led exploration of entrepreneurship. A serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, TEDx speaker, mentor, and lifelong learner with more than three decades of professional experience, Vandana writes from the perspective of someone who has built ventures, taken risks, made mistakes, encountered uncertainty, and repeatedly started again. The book addresses the questions aspiring entrepreneurs actually face: where to begin, whether an idea is viable, how to find customers, how to build teams, what failure means, and how to continue when plans do not work as expected. Its central strength lies in bringing entrepreneurship down from the level of theory and presenting it as a journey of mindset, action, resourcefulness, persistence, and learning. Her recognition celebrates a book that encourages readers to stop waiting for perfect readiness and begin creating possibilities through action.
Glenville Ashby — Finding Mother
Dr. Glenville Ashby is honoured for Finding Mother, a work that brings Eastern and Western spiritual traditions into conversation while exploring the idea of the Divine or Universal Mother as a pathway toward self-understanding. Drawing on his experience in analytical therapy and spirituality, Ashby examines themes including the subconscious, spiritual healing, meditation, reincarnation, sacred feminine traditions, and disciplined spiritual practice. Public descriptions of the book note that it connects the Goddess concept across traditions and includes practical sadhana intended to deepen introspection and spiritual awareness. Ashby has described spirituality as an increasingly important dimension of his literary work, and his writing has also appeared in literary, philosophical, and psychoanalytic contexts. The recognition of Finding Mother celebrates literature that uses personal inquiry and comparative spirituality to encourage readers to investigate meaning, consciousness, and their inner lives.
Satya Sidhartha Panda — The HR Caselets Handbook
Satya Sidhartha Panda is recognised for The HR Caselets Handbook, a practical resource designed to connect Human Resource Management theory with real workplace situations. A senior academic leader, author, researcher, educator, and career coach with extensive experience across higher education, B-Schools, EdTech, and corporate environments, Satya approaches the subject through caselets that allow students and HR aspirants to analyse realistic professional challenges. The book is structured not only around situations and possible solutions but also includes interview-oriented resources, HR terminology, and practical preparation material. This makes it especially relevant for management students specialising in HR and for readers who wish to understand how theoretical concepts operate in actual organisational settings. His recognition celebrates the value of applied academic writing that helps learners move from knowing a concept to using it with confidence.
Read The HR Caselets Handbook on Amazon
Dr Abraham George — The Grace of Little Things
Dr Abraham George is honoured for The Grace of Little Things, a contemplative poetry collection concerned with memory, solitude, love, loss, time, nature, and the quiet beauty of ordinary moments. An educator and institution-builder with decades devoted to education and young minds, Dr George writes with an attentiveness to experiences that often pass unnoticed: changing light, familiar faces, silence, memory, seasons, and the small moments through which life reveals itself. The collection invites readers not to rush toward conclusions but to pause and listen, allowing simplicity to become a doorway into deeper reflection. Public literary coverage describes The Grace of Little Things as a forthcoming collection continuing Dr George’s engagement with beauty, hope, and grace in everyday life. His recognition honours a poetic voice that finds significance not in spectacle, but in careful observation and emotional stillness.
A verified public purchase page for the book was not available at the time of writing.
Deven U Pandey — Salary to Crorepati
Deven U Pandey is recognised for Salary to Crorepati, a title that speaks directly to the aspirations of working professionals seeking to move from dependence on salary toward greater financial and professional possibility. While a detailed verified public synopsis of this particular book was not available, the theme strongly aligns with Pandey’s established public work. He is the Founder and CEO of Ira Skills and describes his broader mission through the idea of “Knowledge to Income”, helping professionals turn skills, knowledge, AI capabilities, and implementation into measurable economic opportunities. Recent public profiles describe his work around career growth, active income, skills development, entrepreneurship, and creating additional income opportunities rather than relying solely on a single salary. His recognition therefore celebrates an author whose wider work is centred on transforming learning into action and economic empowerment.
A verified public purchase page for Salary to Crorepati could not be located, so no book-sales link has been invented.
Bhoomika Garg — The Competency Mirage
Bhoomika Garg is recognised for The Competency Mirage, a work emerging from more than two decades of experience in education, school leadership, research, and institutional development. As an educator deeply engaged with student well-being, teacher empowerment, ethical leadership, emotional intelligence, and progressive learning environments, Bhoomika brings a practitioner’s perspective to one of education’s most urgent questions: what does it actually mean to be competent? The book challenges the assumption that marks, degrees, and formal qualifications automatically translate into real-world readiness or success. By examining the gap between what educational systems often measure and the capabilities that life and work genuinely demand, The Competency Mirage invites students, parents, teachers, and educational leaders to reconsider the meaning of achievement. Her recognition celebrates an important contribution to the conversation about future-ready education and meaningful learning.
The spreadsheet provided a publishing-submission URL rather than a verified public sales page, so a purchase link is not listed here.
Kiaan Suri — ASTERIX: A Centaur Hero
At only eleven years old, Kiaan Suri is celebrated for ASTERIX: A Centaur Hero, an imaginative adventure combining mythology, sport, difference, and determination. Kiaan, a Grade 6 student and enthusiastic reader, brings together two of his passions: storytelling and football. His protagonist, Asterix, dreams of becoming a football star but faces an unusual obstacle: he is a centaur. A surprising discovery sends him on a journey filled with friendship, challenge, and unexpected possibility, ultimately reinforcing the idea that what makes someone different may also become the source of their greatest strength. The book reflects the fearless imaginative freedom of a young writer who has grown up reading mythology, fantasy, classics, and adventure. Kiaan’s recognition is a celebration of childhood creativity and the confidence to transform an unusual idea into a complete story for other young readers.
Read ASTERIX: A Centaur Hero on Amazon
Nitara Chowdhary — Nutty Adventures
Nitara Chowdhary is recognised for Nutty Adventures, a charming story created from the energetic imagination of a young author. At eight years old, Nitara loves drawing, asking questions, and transforming ordinary things into exciting possibilities, qualities that come together naturally in her first book. Nutty Adventures follows six little nuts who are best friends but become accidentally separated and must embark on an adventure to find one another again. Beneath its playful premise lies an accessible message about friendship, courage, teamwork, loyalty, and refusing to give up. The book demonstrates the value of allowing young writers to see that their imagination deserves serious encouragement and a real audience. Nitara’s selection celebrates not only a first literary achievement but the beginning of a creative journey with many more characters, questions, drawings, and adventures still waiting to be created.
View the submitted Nutty Adventures book file
Anaya Chawla — Tiny Pieces of Forever
Twelve-year-old Anaya Chawla receives recognition for Tiny Pieces of Forever, a heartfelt poetry collection that discovers meaning in the ordinary moments of growing up. Inspired by friendship, memories, happiness, change, and everyday experiences, Anaya writes with the instinct that seemingly small moments can become lasting parts of who we are. The collection celebrates those fragments of life that might otherwise be overlooked: moments shared with friends, memories that stay quietly in the mind, experiences that teach something about growing up, and instances of happiness whose importance is understood only later. Anaya hopes readers can discover pieces of their own lives within her writing, giving the poems a warm and relatable emotional quality. Her recognition reflects the ability of young poetry to be simple without being insignificant and personal while still speaking to experiences shared by many readers.
Read Tiny Pieces of Forever on Amazon
Reyan Dhillon — Spiky and the Underwater Bunker
Reyan Dhillon, an exceptionally young six-year-old author from Gurugram, is celebrated for Spiky and the Underwater Bunker. A curious learner, enthusiastic reader, and imaginative storyteller, Reyan has created an adventure featuring Spiky, a brave and kind Stegosaur who must respond when an asteroid threatens Dino Valley. The story carries its characters through a mysterious forest, a treasure cave, and a secret underwater bunker, using adventure to introduce young readers to courage, cooperation, friendship, kindness, and problem-solving. Reyan’s achievement is particularly striking because it demonstrates how early a genuine relationship with stories and books can begin. His recognition honours both the imagination behind the adventure and the larger message it offers young readers: stay curious, face challenges courageously, value friendship, and continue believing in the possibilities created by imagination.
Read Spiky and the Underwater Bunker on Amazon
Norah Bhutani — The Secrets of Egypt
Norah Bhutani is recognised as the winner for The Secrets of Egypt, a title that immediately evokes curiosity, discovery, history, and the timeless fascination surrounding one of the world’s most extraordinary ancient civilizations. Although the supplied Excel sheet did not contain Norah’s author profile or book synopsis and reliable public results did not provide enough information to responsibly reconstruct the plot, her inclusion among the Season 01 winners deserves its own place in this celebration. A young writer choosing Egypt as the centre of a book steps into a world rich with mysteries, monuments, stories, symbols, and unanswered questions, demonstrating the kind of curiosity that Young Author Launchpad exists to encourage. Norah’s recognition celebrates the courage to turn fascination into authorship and to allow a young imagination to explore a world far beyond the boundaries of everyday experience.
A verified public purchase link for The Secrets of Egypt was not available at the time of writing.
Aahana Jaideep — Behind Closed Doors: What People Call Home
Aahana Jaideep is recognised for Behind Closed Doors: What People Call Home, a deeply personal and emotionally courageous exploration of family, loneliness, emotional neglect, belonging, and the fundamental human need to feel loved, heard, and safe. A young author whose writing engages with mental health, autism, emotions, healing, and experiences that often remain hidden from public view, Aahana approaches difficult subjects with remarkable openness. Her debut work, Maarga: A Path to Healing, explored her own relationship with mental health and recovery, while Behind Closed Doors continues that journey by examining what can exist beneath the appearance of an ordinary home. The book gives language to the experience of feeling unseen and unheard within spaces that are traditionally expected to offer comfort and belonging. Raw, intimate, and deeply human, it is ultimately not only a story about pain but also about finding one’s voice. Aahana’s recognition celebrates the courage required to transform lived experience into literature and her commitment to reminding readers struggling silently that they are not alone. Congratulations to Aahana Jaideep on being recognised as a Winner of Young Author Launchpad Season 01 for Behind Closed Doors: What People Call Home. A verified public purchase link was not included in the information provided, so I have not added an unverified link.
Kkian Kathuria- My Big Dreams
My Big Dreams is recognised for its uplifting message of self-belief, determination, and the courage to pursue ambitious goals from a young age. Centred around a young dreamer with a passion for football, the story encourages children to believe in themselves while understanding that meaningful achievements require patience, dedication, kindness, discipline, and consistent effort. Rather than presenting success as something that happens instantly, the book reminds young readers that challenges and setbacks are natural parts of every worthwhile journey. With its combination of sport, aspiration, motivation, and personal growth, My Big Dreams offers children an accessible lesson in perseverance while encouraging them to remain respectful, focused, and confident. Its recognition as part of Young Author Launchpad Season 01 celebrates a story that inspires children to dream without limiting themselves and reminds them that every extraordinary achievement begins with the courage to imagine what might be possible.
Author name and verified purchase link were not included in the information shared for this book, so I have intentionally not added or guessed them.
Nineteen Winners, Seventeen Different Literary Journeys
Taken together, the winners of Young Author Launchpad Season 01 demonstrate precisely why literary platforms for emerging and evolving voices matter. Annem Saad questions technology and human responsibility. Dr. Devika S brings marginalised women’s experiences into literary and academic conversation. Rahul Manghat investigates love and destiny. Sanjeev Panackal Thomas transforms memory into memoir. Apeksha Gupta seeks to bring clarity to career choices. Chella Pandian Pitchai encourages continual personal evolution. Vandana Mehrotra brings entrepreneurial experience to the page. Glenville Ashby explores spirituality and self-knowledge. Satya Sidhartha Panda connects classroom theory with professional reality. Dr Abraham George finds grace in ordinary life. Deven U Pandey focuses on knowledge, skills, and economic growth. Bhoomika Garg questions conventional definitions of competence. And Kiaan Suri, Nitara Chowdhary, Anaya Chawla, Reyan Dhillon, and Norah Bhutani remind us of the extraordinary worlds that become possible when children are encouraged to write rather than merely read.
The entire team extends its warmest congratulations to Annem Saad, Dr. Devika S, Rahul Manghat, Sanjeev Panackal Thomas, Apeksha Gupta, Chella Pandian Pitchai, Vandana Mehrotra, Glenville Ashby, Satya Sidhartha Panda, Dr Abraham George, Deven U Pandey, Bhoomika Garg, Kiaan Suri, Nitara Chowdhary, Anaya Chawla, Reyan Dhillon, and Norah Bhutani.
Their books differ in genre, subject, audience, style, and experience, but they are connected by one powerful act: each author decided that an idea deserved to become a written work.
As these writers come together under the National Young Authors League 2026, the celebration is ultimately bigger than trophies or titles. It is a celebration of the courage behind authorship, of the journeys behind every manuscript, and of voices that chose to move from thought to page and from page to reader.
Congratulations to all the winners of Young Author Launchpad Season 01. May this recognition become not the conclusion of a literary journey, but the beginning of the next remarkable chapter.
