:: TurboBookSnob.com ::

Book Resources

Literary Prizes

Here is a list of key literary prizes. The discerning reader can find many interesting award-winning books to peruse. For a more complete list of literary awards and prizes, visit Literature-Awards.com.

Man Booker Prize	Starting in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is awarded every year for the best full-length novel written by a citizen of Britain or the Commonwealth. The Booker Prize, or Man Booker Prize as it is now known, is widely considered to be the most prestigious prize awarded for novels written in the English language. The winner of the Man Booker Prize received £50,000. Notable winners include Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children (which also won the Booker of Bookers), Margaret Atwood for Blind Assassin, Peter Carey for Oscar and Lucinda and The True History of the Kelly Gang, Thomas Keneally for Schindler's List and J.M. Coetzee for The Life and Times of Michael K and Disgrace.
Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Prize)	Beginning in 1971, the Costa Book Award is awarded every year for well-written, popular British books. There are multiple awards: First Novel Award Novel Award Biography Award Poetry Award Children's Book Award Book of the Year (selected from one of the winners in the other 5 categories) The Book of the Year winner receives £25,000, while the winners of each category receive £5,000 each. Notable winners include Zadie Smith for White Teeth, Kate Atkinson for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and William Trevor for Felicia's Journey.
Orange Prize	The Orange Prize came into existence when a group of people in the publishing world determined that the top literary prizes tended to exclude women. Starting in 1996, the Orange Prize has been awarded to female authors for outstanding work in fiction. The prize is even judged and administered by women. This is the Righteous Babe prize in literature! The prize is not restricted to authors from specific countries, as is the Man Booker Prize. Women of any nationality may enter. The only restrictions are that a book must be written in English and not translated, and that the author is female. The winner of the Orange Prize receives £30,000. Notable winners include Ann Patchett for Bel Canto, When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant, and Carol Shields for Larry's Party.
Guardian First Book Award	The Guardian First Book award is open to any full time author in the Fiction, Poetry, Biography, Memoir, History, Politics, Science, and Current Affairs genres. The winner receives £00,000, and is selected not only by judges, but also by Borders bookstore reading groups. Notable winners include Jonathan Safran Foer for Everything is Illuminated, Seamus Deane for Reading in the Dark, and Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard.
Nobel Prize for Literature	The Nobel Prize for literature is awarded for an author's body of work, rather than for one specific book. Notable winners include John Steinbeck, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Naguib Mahfouz, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, and Jose Saramago.
James Tait Black Memorial Prize	The James Tait Black Memorial Prize is awarded yearly to an outstanding work of fiction or biography written in English, regardless of the nationality of the author. The prize commemorates a partner in A. & C. Black Ltd., a publishing house. The winner receives £3,000, and is selected by judges. Notable winners include Andrew O'Hagan for Personality, Beryl Bainbridge for Master Georgie, Graham Greene for The Heart of the Matter, Aldous Huxley for After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, and D.H. Lawrence for The Lost Girl.
Giller Prize	The Giller Prize is awarded for the best work of fiction or book of short stories written in English by a Canadian author. The prize was founded by Jack Rabinovitch in honor of his wife. Mr. Rabinovitch was assisted in setting up the prize by Alice Munro, and Mordecai Richler. The winner receives $25,000 (Canadian), and is selected by a panel of jury members. Notable winners include Rohinton Mistry for A Fine Balance, Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace, Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version, Alice Munro for The Love of a Good Woman, and Austin Clarke for Polished Hoe.
National Book Award	The National Book Awards were founded in 1950 by a group of book publishing groups. National awards are given for books written in English by a U.S. citizen in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young people's literature. The winner receives $10,000 (U.S.), and is chosen by a panel of judges. Notable winners include James Jones for From Here to Eternity, Saul Bellow for The Adventures of Augie March, Philip Roth for Goodbye, Columbus, Thomas Pynchon for Gravity's Rainbow, Don DeLillo for White Noise, Charles Frazier for Cold Mountain, Ha Jin for Waiting, and Susan Sontag for In America.
National Book Critics Circle Award	The National Book Critics Circle Awards were founded in 1974 by a group of book reviewers, and are given to works of fiction, non-fiction, biography and autobiography, poetry, and criticism. Notable winners include Ian McEwan for Atonement, W.G. Sebald for Austerlitz, Penelope Fitzgerald for The Blue Flower, John Updike for Rabbit at Rest, and Anne Tyler for The Accidental Tourist.
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction	The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded for the best work of fiction written by an American author. It was established using William Faulkner's prize money from his Nobel Prize for Literature, which he donated in order to encourage young writers. Notable winners include David Guterson for Snow Falling on Cedars, Philip Roth for The Human Stain, and Michael Cunningham for The Hours.
Pulitzer Prize	The Pulitzer Prize came into existence from a bequest in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher and journalist. Pulitzer Prizes are awarded for Letters and Drama, as well as Journalism. Prizes in the Letters and Drama genre include Fiction, Drama, History, Biography, General Non-Fiction, and Music. Notable winners in Fiction include Herman Wouk for The Caine Mutiny, Ernest Hemingway for The Old Man and the Sea, Harper Lee for To Kill a Mockingbird, Norman Mailer for The Executioner's Song, John Kennedy Toole for A Confederacy of Dunces, and Jhumpa Lahiri for Interpreter of Maladies.