Prestigious book prizes are awarded annually in a wide variety of countries around the world. Focusing on them, many determine what they will read in the near future, what talented writers appear in the world, whom to focus on. For poets and prose writers, this is one of the most effective ways to express themselves publicly, to become truly famous and popular.
The most prestigious award
Of course, the debate about which book award remains the most prestigious continues to this day and will probably never subside. Perhaps no one will argue with the fact that at least the most famous award in this area is the Nobel Prize in Literature.
This is one of five awards that were organized by the will of the creator of dynamite, the famous Swedish engineer and chemist Alfred Nobel in 1895. Officially, this book award has been awarded since 1901, along with other prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.
The very first award was received by the French writer Arman Prud, who became famous as a poet and essayist.
Russian laureates
Throughout the history of this book award, 29 times it has been awarded to laureates who write in English. 14 times it was received by French-speaking writers. 13 times the prize was awarded for works in German, 11 times in Spanish, 7 times in Swedish, 6 times in Russian and Italian, 4 times in Polish, three times in Danish and Norwegian, two times in Greek, Japanese, and Chinese, once in Arabic, Bengali, Czech, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Occitan, Portuguese, Serbian, Turkish, and Yiddish.
Interestingly, even though six authors writing in Russian became Nobel laureates in literature, only five of them are Russians. These are Ivan Bunin, Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Sholokhov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky.
In 2015, the Belarusian writer Lyudmila Aleksievich, who writes her works in Russian, became the winner of the award. The last winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is the English writer of Japanese descent, Kazio Ishiguro.
Criticism
In recent years, the Nobel Committee, which determines the laureates of the award, has been repeatedly criticized. Academicians are accused that most often the prize is awarded to writers from Europe and the United States, among Western European writers there are many Scandinavian authors, especially Swedes, which may be explained by the nationality of Nobel himself.
Many recognized classics of the 20th century did not receive the prize, although they were nominated several times. For example, these are Federico Garcia Lorca, Thomas Wolfe, Paul Valerie, Osip Mandelstam, Robert Frost, Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova. In addition, the authors of the so-called "genre literature" are not awarded the prize (Herbert Wells and John Tolkien were left without an award); moreover, the prize is often accused of politicization. For example, it is believed that only because of the confrontation between the USSR and the USA in the Cold War, Alexander Solzhenitsyn became its laureate.
Pulitzer Prize
A large number of important awards in this area are presented in the United States. For example, this is the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. The list of books that are nominated for it annually become major hits.
It is believed that the award was established in 1903, when newspaper tycoon Jose Pulitzer made a will in which he left two million dollars to organize a fund to encourage the best writers.
Interestingly, the Pulitzer Prize was originally awarded only for the novels, but in 1947 the situation changed. Ernest Poole was the first winner in 1918 for the work "His Family". Unlike the Nobel Prize in Literature, this award is presented for a specific book, and not for all creativity in total.
Well-known writers to receive this award include Sinclair Lewis for Arrowsmith (he declined the award), Thornton Wilder for King St Louis Bridge, John Steinbeck for Grapes of Wrath, Ernest Hemingway for Old Man and the Sea, William Faulkner for “The Parable,” Harper Lee for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” John Updike for “The Rabbit Made Rich,” Philip Roth for “American Pastoral.” Here is a list of Pulitzer Prize books on literature that deserve special attention.
In 2018, the award went to Andrew Sean Greer for the novel "Less."
2014 novel
One of the most successful works of the last few years that won the Pulitzer Prize was Donna Tartt’s novel "Goldfinch".
The writer named her work in honor of the picture of the Dutchman Karel Fabricius, written in 1654. It tells about the 13-year-old Theo Decker, who comes to his senses after the explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he receives from the dying old man a rare picture of Fabricius and the mysterious ring that he asks to be taken out of the museum.
In Donna Tart’s novel "Goldfinch", young Theo has to go around many New York homes and families, trying to hide from the persecution. The picture will become for him a kind of curse that will pull to the very bottom. At the same time, it will turn into a straw that can bring it to the light.
Danish storyteller
There is an award in the world named after the brilliant Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. The Andersen Prize is awarded every two years to the best children's writers, as well as artists and illustrators.
It was founded in 1965 by the UNESCO Children's Literature Council. For children's authors, it is even called the Small Nobel Prize, so prestigious it is.
Among those who received it, Astrid Lindgren (1958), Tove Jansson (1966), Catherine Paterson (1998). In 2018, the award went to Japanese writer Eiko Kadono, whose fame was brought by the novel "Kiki's Delivery Service", subsequently filmed by Hayao Miyazaki.
English literature
One of the most prestigious awards in exclusively English literature is considered the Booker Prize in Literature. The list of works that are nominated for it always receives close attention from critics and readers.
The award has been presented since 1969. Interestingly, until 2013, only authors living in the UK or in one of the countries that are members of the so-called Commonwealth of Nations could receive it. Since 2014, they began to hand it to the author, who wrote the novel in English, regardless of where he lives. It is noteworthy that after this, almost the Americans become the owners of the prize.
The very first award received by Percy Howard Newby for the novel "You have to answer for it." Among the authors who have become laureates of the award and known in our country, Iris Murdoch, Salman Rushdi, Anthony Bayette, James Kelman, Arundati Roy, Ian McEwan, Yann Martel should be noted.
In 2017, the prize was awarded to the American prose writer George Saunders for the novel "Lincoln in the Bardo."
Domestic analogue
There is an analogue of the Booker Prize in many countries. For example, since 1992, the Russian Booker Prize has been awarded. It is received by the author, who wrote a novel in Russian, which was first published last year.
Interestingly, the award was established by the British Council in Russia. The sponsors of the award were domestic and foreign companies that helped raise money for the award for the winning authors.
Over the years, some other prizes tried to compete with it (for example, the Runet Book Prize), but it remained the most influential in Russian literature. In 2018, a sad event occurred: the organizers announced that for the first time they could not find a sponsor, so it was decided to refuse to award the prize.
Laureates of the Russian Booker
The very first laureate of this award in 1992 was Mark Kharitonov for the novel “Lines of Fate, or Milashevich’s Chest”. In the 90s, the award also went to Vladimir Makanin for the “Table covered with cloth and with a decanter in the middle”, Bulat Okudzhava for the “Abolished Theater”, Georgy Vladimov for the “General and his army”, Andrei Sergeev for the “Album for stamps”, Anatoly Azolsky for “The Cage”, to Alexander Morozov for “Someone else's Letters”, to Mikhail Butov for “Freedom”, in 2000 Mikhail Shishkin became the laureate of the prize for “Taking Ishmael”.
In the 2000s, the list of winners is: Lyudmila Ulitskaya (“Kazuk Kukotsky”), Oleg Pavlov (“Karaganda Nines”), Ruben Gallego (“White on Black”), Vasily Aksyonov (“Voltaireans and Volterian women”), Denis Gutsko ( “Without a path-track”), Olga Slavnikova (“2017”), Alexander Ilichevsky (“Matisse”), Mikhail Elizarov (“Librarian”), Elena Chizhova (“Women's Time”), Elena Kolyadina (“Flower Cross”), Alexander Chudakov (“The mist goes to the old steps”), Andrey Dmitriev (“Peasant and teenager”), Andrey Volos (“Return to Panjrud”), Vladimir Sharov (“Return to Egypt”) , Alexander Snegirev ("Faith"), Peter Aleshkovsky ("Fortress").
In 2017, Alexander Nikolayenko won with the novel "Kill Bobrykin. The Story of a Murder".
In a fantasy world
In Russian literature, science fiction writers who had crowds of fans were always held in high esteem. Therefore, such close attention has always been paid to the ABS Prize - the international literary prize in the field of science fiction named after Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
The award is presented in two categories - "Artistic Prose" and "Criticism and Journalism". As Boris Strugatsky himself noted, the winner can be the author of any fantastic work, even one in which elements of the impossible and incredible are used as plot-forming techniques. Therefore, here the jury has a wide choice - from classic science fiction to phantasmagoria and grotesques in the style of Mikhail Bulgakov or Franz Kafka.
For the first time, the prize in 1999 was received by Evgeny Lukin for the novel "Zone of Justice". In 2002, the award went to Marina and Sergey Dyachenko for “Valley of Conscience”, the next year to Mikhail Uspensky for “White Horseradish in a Hemp Field”. Four times, Dmitry Bykov became her laureate - for the novels "Spelling", "Tow", "Railway" and "X".
In 2017, Vyacheslav Rybakov won with the novel “On a Shaggy Back”.
On the other side of the world
It is often difficult for Russian and European readers to get acquainted with the literature of distant countries. Helped in this prestigious awards, which give guidance, for example, the literary prize of Southeast Asia.
It has been presented since 1979 for prose and poetry of ASEAN writers. It’s worth recognizing right away that among the laureates it will be difficult for our reader to meet familiar names.
Interestingly, each year, the award is presented to several authors at once. The very first winner was a prose writer and poet from Malaysia, Abdul Samad Said. Among his famous works are the novels “Quite an Immediate Month in Fatehpur Sikir,” “Quiet River,” “Morning Rain,” and “Younger Brother Came.”
In 2017, the award was received by Rusli Marzuki Suria from Indonesia and Jidunun Leungpiansamut from Thailand.