The Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1955, by the Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters), to writers and their works, for their outstanding contribution to the upliftment of Indian literature in each of the official languages of India.
Here is the Complete list of winners for English–
| Year | Writer | Book |
| 2016 | Jerry Pinto | Em and The Big Hoom (Novel) |
| 2015 | Cyrus Mistry | Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer (Novel) |
| 2014 | Adil Jussawalla | Trying to Say Goodbye (Poetry) |
| 2013 | Temsula Ao | Laburnum For My Head (Short stories) |
| 2012 | Jeet Thayil | These Errors are Correct (Poetry) |
| 2011 | Ramachandra Guha | India after Gandhi (Historical Narrative) |
| 2010 | Esther David | The Book of Rachel (Novel) |
| 2009 | Chaturvedi Badrinath | Mahabharata: An Inquiry into the Human Condition (Criticism) |
| 2007 | Malathi Rao | Disorderly Women (Novel) |
| 2006 | Rupa Bajwa | The Sari Shop (Novel) |
| 2005 | Arundhati Roy | The Algebra of Infinite Justice (Essays) |
| 2004 | Upamanyu Chatterjee | The Mammaries of the Welfare State (Novel) |
| 2003 | Meenakshi Mukherjee | The Perishable Empire (Essays) |
| 2002 | Amit Chaudhuri | A New World (Novel) |
| 2001 | Rajmohan Gandhi | Rajaji: A Life (Biography) |
| 2000 | Kiran Nagarkar | Cuckold (Novel) |
| 1999 | A. K. Ramanujan | The Collected Poems (Poetry) |
| 1998 | Mahesh Dattani | Final Solutions and Other Plays (Drama) |
| 1996 | Sunetra Gupta | Memories of Rain (Novel) |
| 1994 | Dom Moraes | Serendip (Poetry) |
| 1993 | G. N. Devy | After Amnesia (Essays) |
| 1992 | Ruskin Bond | Our Trees Still Grow In Dehra (Short Stories) |
| 1991 | I. Allan Sealy | The Trotter-Nama (Novel) |
| 1990 | Shashi Deshpande | That Long Silence (Novel) |
| 1989 | Amitav Ghosh | The Shadow Lines (Novel) |
| 1988 | Vikram Seth | The Golden Gate (Novel) |
| 1987 | Shiv K. Kumar | Trapfalls In the Sky (Poetry) |
| 1986 | Nayantara Sahgal | Rich Like Us (Novel) |
| 1985 | Kamala Das | Collected Poems (Poetry) |
| 1984 | Keki N. Daruwalla | The Keeper of the Dead (Poetry) |
| 1983 | Nissim Ezekiel | Latter-Day Psalms (Poetry) |
| 1982 | Arun Joshi | The Last Labyrinth (Novel) |
| 1981 | Jayanta Mahapatra | Relationship (Poetry) |
| 1980 | K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar | On the Mother (Biography) |
| 1979 | Rama Mehta | Inside the Haveli (Novel) |
| 1978 | Anita Desai | Fire on the Mountain (Novel) |
| 1977 | Chaman Nahal | Azadi (Novel) |
| 1976 | Sarvepalli Gopal | Jawaharlal Nehru (Biography) |
| 1975 | Nirad C. Chaudhuri | Scholar Extraordinary (Biography) |
| 1971 | Mulk Raj Anand | Morning Face (Novel) |
| 1969 | Niharranjan Ray | An Artist in Life (Biography) |
| 1967 | Bhabani Bhattacharya | Shadow From Ladakh (Novel) |
| 1965 | Verrier Elwin | The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin (Autobiography) |
| 1964 | Raja Rao | The Serpent and the Rope (Novel) |
| 1960 | R. K. Narayan | The Guide (Novel) |
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