Literary prizes celebrate creative achievement and artistic excellence. Since 1901, when the first Nobel Prize for Literature went to Sully Prudhomme over Leo Tolstoy, they have been often accompanied by the whiff of scandal. Despite this - or perhaps because of it - the number of prizes continues to expand, as do the rewards reaped by the winners.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s highest literary honour has gone through a variety of name changes in the last decade. From 1968 through to 1993 it was the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Award. In 1994 it became the Montana Book Awards until 1996 when it merged with the New Zealand Book Awards to become the current Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
This year’s winner will be announced on July 21st.
View the finalists here. View past winners on our
New Zealand award winners page.
Fiction
Betty Trask Prize
Betty Trask left a bequest to the
Society of Authors in 1983 to fund a prize for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 in a romantic or traditional, but not experimental, style. The prize money must be used for foreign travel.
View the award winners here.
Costa Book Awards – Novel (previously Whitbread Book Awards)
The Costa Book Awards are given for literary merit but also for conveying the enjoyment of reading to a wide audience. More populist than the Man Booker Prize, they are nonetheless among the most prestigious UK book awards.
View the award winners here.
This is the world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction. It is also unique in that the nominations are forwarded by participating libraries throughout the world.
View the award winners here.
Perhaps the most prestigious literary award, the Man Booker is awarded to the best full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan or South Africa.
View the award winners here.
Awarded to the person who "shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, according to the terms of Nobel’s will.
View the award winners here.
This award honouring and celebrating women’s writing published in the UK was established as a response to the low numbers of female writers featuring in the traditional award lists.
View the award winners here.
The Pulitzer Prize is given annually to fiction written by an American author and preferably dealing with American life.
View the award winners here.
Non-fiction awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Pulitzer Prize
National Book Critics Award
National Book Award
Children’s literature awards
Hans Christian Anderson Award Carnegie Medal
New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults
The Childrens Literature Foundation of New Zealand Awards
Margaret Mahy Medal Award
Betty Gilderdale Award
Tom Fitzgibbon Award
Gaelyn Gordon Award for Much-Loved Book
Joy Cowley Award
Storylines: Children’s Literature
Foundation of New Zealand Noteable New Zealand Books
Genre Fiction Awards
Genre awards can give you suggestions for just about any type of reading that interests you. Here are some of our favourites:
The Hugo Award was named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, "The Father of Magazine Science and is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society.
The Nebula Awards administered, voted and presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SWFA) to acknowledge excellence in science fiction writing
Commonly referred to as the Vogels, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom.
The World Fantasy Awards are considered among the most prestigious in the speculative fiction genre, and can be awarded to any work falling within the realm of fantasy.
The Bram Stoker Awards are presented annually by the Horror Writers Association, for outstanding work in twelve different categories of the genre.
Every April, the Mystery Writers of America bestows the coveted Edgar Allan Poe Awards for achievement in the mystery field.
The British Crime Writers Association annually presents several awards recognizing the best crime fiction and criticism published in the previous year. The best known of these awards are the Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger.
Poetry
Montana Medal for Poetry – Montana Book Awards
The purpose of this award is to reward literary excellence in poetic works. The winning book will, in the opinion of the judges, be a significant addition to the literature of New Zealand.