Exploring the prestigious literary awards of 2024.

A literary award is an award given in celebration of a highly appreciated literary work or body of work. It is usually given to an author. Most literary awards are accompanied by an award ceremony.

Read: Book Cover Design: How to beautify your Book Cover Design.

Many awards have one organisation (usually a non-profit organisation) as the presenter and public face of the award, and another organisation as the financial sponsor or backer, who pays the prize remuneration as well as the cost of the ceremony and public relations, typically a corporate sponsor who may sometimes attach their name to the award (such as the Orange Prize).

List of 10 Most Prestigious Literary Awards-

Nobel Prize in Literature
National Book Awards
Booker Prize
Pulitzer Prize
Women’s Prize for Fiction
PEN America Literary Award
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Sahitya Akademi Award
America Award
The Hindu Literary Prize

Read: How to self-publish a Book for free?

1. Nobel prize in Literature-

The Nobel Prize in Literature (here meaning for literature) is a Swedish literature prize that has been awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has, in the words of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s will, “in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction”

Though individual works are occasionally mentioned as being particularly remarkable, the award is based on an author’s whole body of work. The Swedish Academy determines whether or not to award the prize. Every year, the Swedish Academy issues a call for nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Members of the Academy, members of literature academies and societies, literature and language academics, former Nobel literature laureates, and presidents of writers’ groups can all suggest candidates. Self-nomination is not permitted. The name of the laureate is announced by the academy in early October.

Between 1901 and 2021, 118 people were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: 102 men and 16 women.

Popular winners include Rabindranath Tagore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, and Bob Dylan.

You may also check out: How to publish a Book | Publish Your Book | BlueRoseOne

2. National Book Awards-

The National Book Honors are a set of yearly literary awards given out in the United States. Every November, the National Book Foundation gives the National Book Honors and two lifetime achievement awards to authors during the annual National Book Awards Ceremony.

The nonprofit National Book Foundation was founded in 1988 to administer and improve the National Book Awards, as well as “reach beyond [them] into the domains of education and literacy,” notably through the sponsorship of public appearances by writers. Its purpose is to “celebrate the best literature in America, broaden its readership, and ensure that books play an important role in American culture.”

Only publishers can propose works for the National Book Awards, but judges can make specific requests to publishers. Each panel has five judges, who include authors, librarians, booksellers, and literary critics. In 2013, the judging panels were enlarged to include literary specialists as well as established writers.

Popular winners of this award include Alice Walker, Joan Didion and William Faulkner.

3. Booker Prize-

The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is an annual literary award given to the author of the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The Booker Prize Foundation appoints a seven-person panel of authors, librarians, literary agents, publishers, and booksellers. Since 2014, each publisher’s imprint has been allowed to submit a certain number of titles based on their longlisting history (previously they could submit two). Non-longlisted publishers may submit one title; publishers who have had one or two longlisted books in the preceding five years may submit two; publishers who have had three or four longlisted books may submit three; and publishers who have had five or more longlisted books may submit four. Furthermore, prior prize winners are immediately considered if they enter new titles. Books can also be called in: publishers can make written requests to the judges to consider titles other than those previously submitted. The International Booker Prize is given for a book that has been translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Geetanjali Shree won the International Booker Prize this year for her translated novel ‘Tombs of Sand’. Other Indian winners of Booker Prize include Arundhati Roy, V.S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai.

You may also like: Guide to Self-Publishing on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

4. Pulitzer Prize-

The Pulitzer Prize is an award given in the United States for achievements in newspaper, magazine, internet journalism, literature, and musical composition. It was founded in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher who built his wealth, and is administered by Columbia University. Prizes are given out in twenty-one categories each year. Each winner in twenty of the categories receives a certificate and a US$15,000 cash reward (up from $10,000 in 2017). A gold medal is awarded to the winner of the public service category.

The Pulitzer Prize does not automatically examine all relevant media works, but only those that have been properly entered. (A $75 entry fee is required for each desired entry category.) Entries must fall into at least one of the specific award categories and cannot be accepted only on the basis of being literary or musical. Regardless of their properties, works can only be entered in a maximum of two categories.

Indian writers who won this prize include Geeta Anand, Jhumpa Lahiri and Siddhartha Mukherjee.

5. Women’s Prize for Fiction-

The Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize for Fiction (1996-2006 and 2009-12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007-08), and Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (2014-2017)) is one of the most prominent literary prizes in the United Kingdom. It is given to a female author of any country each year for the finest original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom the previous year.

The prize was founded in 1996 to recognise female writers’ creative achievements. The prize was inspired by the Booker Prize in 1991, when none of the six shortlisted books were written by a woman, despite the fact that 60% of novels published that year were written by women. As a result, a group of industry women and men – authors, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, and journalists – gathered to debate the matter. According to research, the main literary prizes frequently fail to recognise women’s creative talents.

Popular winners of this award include Ruth Ozenki, Susanna Clarke and Ali Smith.

6. PEN America Literary Award-

The PEN America Literary Awards recognise excellent writers in fiction, poetry, theatre, science and sports writing, essays, biography, and children’s literature. Each year, PEN America bestows over 20 honours, fellowships, grants, and prizes totaling almost $350,000 on writers and translators. The PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, worth $75,000, is currently the top award granted by PEN America and one of the largest literary awards in the United States. The US$50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, the US$25,000 PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel, the US$25,000 PEN/Bingham Award for a Debut Short Story Collection, and the US$10,000 PEN/Open Book Award for new books by writers of colour are among the other awards given. Divya victor, a Tamil American author, won this prize this year.

You may also like: Strategies for Effective Book Recommendations in Publishing

7. Neustadt International Prize for Literature-

The University of Oklahoma and its worldwide literary newspaper, World Literature Today, sponsor the Neustadt International Prize for Literature on a biennial basis. It is regarded as one of the most prominent worldwide literary awards, frequently compared to the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1982, the New York Times dubbed the award “The Oklahoma Nobel,” and it is also known as the “American Nobel.” Since its inception in 1970, 30 of its laureates, contenders, or jurors have also received Nobel Prizes. It, like the Nobel Prize, is given to individuals for their complete body of work rather than a single one.

A silver eagle feather, a certificate, and $50,000 USD are the prize. Walter and Doris Neustadt of Ardmore, Oklahoma, funded the award to secure its continuation. A jury of at least seven people selects the candidates. There are no geographical, linguistic, or genre restrictions.

Raja Rao won this award in 1988. Rohinton Mistry, an India-born Canadian author won this prize in 2012.

8. Sahitya Akademi Award-

The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India bestowed upon writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 24 major Indian languages such as Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, English, Bengali, Punjabi, and the 22 listed languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution recognised by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

The award, which was established in 1954, consists of a plaque and a monetary prize of $1,000,000. The award’s goal is to recognise and promote excellence in Indian writing while also recognising new trends. The annual selection procedure takes place throughout the previous twelve months.

Famous winners of this award include RK Narayan, Mulk Anand raj, Arundhati Roy, Jerry Pinto and Shashi Tharoor.

9. America Award-

The America Award is a literary lifetime achievement award given to foreign writers. It sees itself as a modest endeavour to provide literary alternatives to the Nobel Prize. It was initially seen in 1994. The award does not include any monetary compensation. The Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc., in loving remembrance of Anna Fahrni, and the publisher Green Integer are both sponsors.

Popular winners of this prize include Haruki Murakami, Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter.

10. The Hindu Literary Prize-

The Hindu Literary Prize, also known as The Hindu Best Fiction Award, was founded in 2010 by The Hindu Literary Review, which is part of the daily The Hindu. It recognises Indian writings in English and translations into English. The prize was first named The Hindu Best Fiction Award in 2010. Beginning in 2018, a non-fiction category was added.

Every year, publishers are requested to submit entries — full-length novels or short story collections by a single author — in May-June. The shortlist and eventual winner are decided by a distinguished group of judges comprised of writers, academics, and critics.

Popular winners of this award include Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Nair and jerry Pinto.

Read: List of 10 Successful Self-Published Authors who chose Self-Publishing

These prestigious awards can be a motivation for you to complete your books and make your dreams a reality. We at BlueRose Publishers have an award of our own and you can be the next winner. The awards, which were first presented in 2018, were initially called as the WordsBrew Book Awards, and were given to “the best self-published books.” The award was renamed BlueRose Book Awards in 2021.

The prize aspires to recognise literary figures in the world of literature regardless of genre, language, or country. Hope this blog was insightful and inspirational for you.