Many literary awards give significant remunerations. This is a list of active literary awards from around the world with a prize of at least US$ 100,000 or equivalent. Although global in scope and comprising over 35 awards, most of the prizes are in only four currencies: United Arab Emirates dirham, Swedish krona, Euro, and United States dollar.
| Approximate Equivalent in US$ | Prize amount | Prize name | Type | Host country | Primary language | Notes | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,361,000 | DH 5,000,000 | Million's Poet | — | UAE | Arabic | Award for a single poem. Total prizes for 2nd to 5th positions are approximately $2,723,000. Sister prize of Prince of Poets | [1] |
| 1,092,000 | € 1,000,000 | Premio Planeta de Novela (winner) | Book | Spain | Spanish | See also runner-up of same prize. | [2] |
| 1,000,000 | kr 11,000,000 | Nobel Prize in Literature | Author | Sweden | Any | There are five Nobel Prizes of 11 million kronor each. | [3] |
| 470,000 | US$470,000 | The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize | Author* | United States | English | Open to all arts, not just writers. | [4] |
| 466,500 | kr 5,000,000 | Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award | Author | Sweden | Any | Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and people or organisations that work with reading promotion in the area of children's and young adult literature, are eligible for the prize. | [5] |
| 272,000 | DH 1,000,000 | Prince of Poets | — | UAE | Arabic | Award for a single poem. Sister prize of Million's Poet | [6] [7] |
| 250,000 | US$ 250,000 | Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language | Author | Mexico | Spanish | Any writer writing in the Spanish language | [8] |
| 228,000 | kr 2,500,000 | International Ibsen Award | Author* | Norway | Any | Any drama and theater position eligible, not just writers. | [9] |
| 218,000 | € 200,000 | Prix mondial Cino Del Duca | Author | France | Any | Open to any writer working in either scientific or literary form | [10] |
| 200,000 | DH 750,000 | Sheikh Zayed Book Award | Book | United Arab Emirates | Arabic | 7 awards each valued at AED 750,000 | [11] |
| 200,000 | US$ 200,000 | Saudi King Abdullah International Award for Translation | Author | Saudi Arabia | Arabic | 5 awards of 200,000 each (1 million total) | [12] |
| 175,000 | US$ 175,000 | Alfaguara Prize | Book | Spain | Spanish | [13] | |
| 175,000 | US$ 175,000 | Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes | Author | United States | English | Composed of eight awards of $175,000 each. | [14] [15] |
| 164,000 | € 150,000 | Premio Planeta de Novela (runner-up) | Book | Spain | Spanish | See also winner of same prize. | [16] |
| 150,000 | US$ 150,000 | Lannan Literary Awards | Author | United States | English | Composed of three awards of $150,000 each. Prize amount last verified for 2007. | [17] |
| 150,000 | US$ 150,000 | FIL Literature Award | Author | Mexico | Spanish | [18] | |
| 150,000 | US$150,000 | Carol Shields Prize for Fiction | Author | US | English | Prize awards works of fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States. | [19] |
| 146,000 | kr. 1,000,000 | Sonning Prize | Author* | Denmark | Any | Open to all arts not just writers. | [20] |
| 134,000 | € 125,000 | Miguel de Cervantes Prize | Author | Spain | Spanish | [21] | |
| 134,000 | € 125,000 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing | Book | Spain | Any | [22] | |
| 131,000 | € 120,000 | Premio de Novela Fernando Lara | Book | Spain | Spanish | [23] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | Rómulo Gallegos Prize | Book | Venezuela | Spanish | [24] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | Premio Primavera de Novela | Book | Spain | Spanish | [25] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | International Dublin Literary Award | Book | Ireland | English | [26] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | Premio Novela Histórica Alfonso X El Sabio | Book | Spain | Spanish | [27] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | Camões Prize | Author | Portugal Brazil | Portuguese | [28] | |
| 110,000 | € 100,000 | Prémio Leya | Book | Portugal | Portuguese | [29] [30] [31] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Premio de Traducción Literaria Tomás Segovia | Author | Mexico | Spanish | Translator award | [32] |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding | Book | Qatar | Arabic | Translation award. Total award value is $2 million. | [33] |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Nigeria Prize for Literature | Book | Nigeria | English | [34] [35] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing | Author | United States | English | [36] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize | Author | United States | English | [37] [38] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Wallace Stevens Award | Author | United States | English | [39] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature | Book | United States | English | [40] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards | Author | United States | English | [41] | |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Awards | Author | United Arab Emirates | Arabic | Composed of five awards of $100,000 each. | [42] |
| 100,000 | US$ 100,000 | Park Kyong-ni Prize | Author | South Korea | Any | [43] |
The following awards have a superlative claim within certain defined categories, as described and sourced in the Notes column.
| Equivalent in US$ (April 2016) | Prize amount | Prize name | Type | Host country | Primary language | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 524,527 | kr 5,000,000 | Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award | Children's literature | Sweden | Any | The richest children's literature prize in the world. [44] |
| 138,180 | € 125,000 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing | Crime fiction | Spain | Any | "The world's most lucrative crime fiction prize." [22] |
| 75,000 | US$ 75,000 | Cundill History Prize | Non-fiction and history | Canada | English | "the world's largest non-fiction purse" [45] |
| 55,270 | € 50,000 | Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero | Short story collection | Spain | Spanish | "the largest in the world for a competition of this kind". [46] |
| 39,358 | £ 30,000 | Sunday Times Short Story Award | Short story | United Kingdom | English | "The world's richest short story prize" (single short story). [47] |
| 38,081 | CA$ 50,000 | Montreal International Poetry Prize | Poetry | Canada | Any | Thought to be the world's richest award for a single-poem. [48] |
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, and the Six Bullerby Children, and for the children's fantasy novels Mio, My Son; Ronia the Robber's Daughter; and The Brothers Lionheart. Lindgren worked on the Children's Literature Editorial Board at the Rabén & Sjögren publishing house in Stockholm and wrote more than 30 books for children. In 2017, she was calculated to be the world's 18th most translated author. Lindgren had by 2010 sold roughly 167 million books worldwide. In 1994, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her unique authorship dedicated to the rights of children and respect for their individuality". Her opposition to corporal punishment of children resulted in the world's first law on the matter in 1979, while her campaigning for animal welfare led to a new law, Lex Lindgren, in time for her 80th birthday.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). The prize is five million SEK, making it the richest award in children's literature and one of the richest literary prizes in the world. The annual cost of 10 million SEK is financed with tax money.
José Eduardo Agualusa Alves da Cunha is an Angolan journalist and writer of Portuguese and Brazilian descent. He studied agronomy and silviculture in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently he resides in the Island of Mozambique, working as a writer and journalist. He also has been working to establish a public library on the island.
Leonardo de la Caridad Padura Fuentes is a Cuban novelist and journalist. As of 2007, he is one of Cuba's best-known writers internationally. In his native Spanish, as well as in English and some other languages, he is often referred to by the shorter form of his name, Leonardo Padura. He has written screenplays, two books of short stories, and a series of detective novels translated into 10 languages. In 2012, Padura was awarded the National Prize for Literature, Cuba's national literary award and the most important award of its kind. In 2015, he was awarded the Premio Principe de Asturias de las Letras of Spain, one of the most important literary prizes in the Spanish-speaking world and usually considered as the Iberoamerican Nobel Prize.
The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published writers in the English language under the age of forty. The prize was originally awarded biennially but became an annual award in 2010. Entries for the prize are submitted by the publisher, editor, or agent; for theatre plays and screenplays, by the producer.
Meg Rosoff is an American writer based in London, United Kingdom. She is best known for the novel How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Prize, the Printz Award, the Branford Boase Award and made the Whitbread Awards shortlist. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians recognising the year's best children's book published in the UK.
Banco del Libro is a non-profit organization for the promotion of children's literature, with headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. It was established in 1960 as a centre for the exchange of textbooks – hence the name Banco del Libro. As it has grown it has diversified to promote reading in Venezuela, in every conceivable arena and genre of children’s literature.
The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.
Tomás Segovia was a Mexican author, translator and poet of Spanish origin. He was born in Valencia, Spain, and studied in France and Morocco. He went into exile to Mexico, where he taught at the Colegio de México and other universities. Segovia founded the publication Presencia (1946), was director of La Revista Mexicana de Literatura (1958–1963), formed part of the magazine Plural, and collaborated in Vuelta. He was married to the writer Inés Arredondo from 1953 to 1965.
The Selma Lagerlöf Prize is a Swedish literary prize awarded to an author writing in the spirit of Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize was founded by the Sunne Municipality in Värmland County in 1983 and has been awarded annually since 1984. Recipients receive 100,000 Swedish kronor. The awards ceremony takes place in Sunne every August 13 and is in honor of Selma Lagerlöf.
Álvaro Pombo García de los Ríos is a Spanish poet, novelist and activist.
The Prémio Leya is a Portuguese literary award established in 2008 and awarded annually by the Portuguese book publishing company Leya to an unpublished Portuguese-language novel. The winner receives €100,000, making it one of the richest literary prizes in the world.
The Alfaguara Novel Prize is a Spanish-language literary award. The award is one of the most prestigious in the Spanish language. It includes a prize of US$175,000 making it one of the richest literary prizes in the world. It is sponsored by Alfaguara, a publisher owned by Penguin Random House.
Premio Tusquets de Novela is a literary prize promoted by the Spanish Tusquets Editores, for writers in Spanish language. First awarded in the 2005 Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2017.
The National Novel Award is one of the main literary awards given annually in Bolivia. It is convened by the Ministry of Cultures, and originally sponsored by Grupo Santillana, through the Alfaguara publishing house. It was established in 1998 to promote the dissemination of Bolivian literature in the novel genre and better awareness of its authors.
The Pablo Neruda Award is a literary award granted annually by the Pablo Neruda Foundation since 1987. It recognizes an author under 40 who is actively writing. It consists of a diploma, a medal, and US$6,000, which are presented at La Chascona house museum in Santiago.
Ana Margarida Taborda Duarte Martins de Carvalho is a Portuguese writer and journalist. She is the only Portuguese writer to be award with the Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (APE/DGLB) for each of her three successive works of literary fiction; they were for two novels and a short-story collection.
Tamara Kamenszain was an Argentine poet and essayist.
We realized that there's nothing on that scale for just one poem. And so there was an opportunity there. And when we started to think of it globally, that's when we realized how unique it could be.