Aside from festivals, like the recent Open Book Festival, book lovers and authors also have literary awards to look forward to. Every year, there are hundreds of prizes awarded to writers of different ages, genres, cultures and countries for their excellent work, whether it be their debut novel or later work. Here are some of the most well-known and important awards in the book world:
South African Literary Awards
These awards were founded by the wRite associates, in partnership with the National Department of Arts and Culture in 2005, and they pay tribute to South African writers, their literary excellence and sharing of local stories. To date, the SA Literary Awards have honoured 121 authors in 11 categories including the K. Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award, the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, Poetry Award and the First-Time Published Author Award.
University of Johannesburg (UJ) Prize
The UJ Prize for South African Writing in English comprises of two prizes – a main prize (which is R75 000) and a debut prize (which is R30 000) – given every year for the best creative work. The judging panel is made up of four members from UJ’s Department of English, two academics from other universities and one member of the media or publishing industry.
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been given to authors who, according to Alfred Nobel’s will, produced “in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone at all, will receive the prize by sending out requests for nominations of candidates and examining them, narrowing them down to 20, then 5 and a series of voting.
European Union Literary Award
Although its name may make you think otherwise, the European Union Literary Award is a South African literary award. It gets its name from the various European Union embassies and commissions operating in South Africa, and is open to South African writers and their books must be a first, unpublished work of fiction in English or translations or other South African languages into English providing the work has not been published in other languages. The winner gets a R25 000 cash prize and their book published by Jacana Media.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize, named after American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer, is an award for excellence in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition in the US. The Letters, Drama and Music category has seven sub-categories: Biography/Autobiography, Fiction, General Non-Fiction, History, Poetry, Drama and Music. Only American authors and composers are eligible for prizes.
Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
Previously called the Orange Prize for Fiction (1996-2006 and 2009-2012), the Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007-2008) and the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2013), the Baileys Women’s Prize is on of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes. It’s awarded to a female author for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the UK. Earlier this year, the organisers of the prize launched a campaign to find out which books, written by women, have had the biggest impact on readers. The general public got to submit their nominations via Twitter and among the final 20 were To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Harry Potter by J.K Rowling and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
