Here’s the rundown of this year’s nominees and winners for some of the biggest literary prizes and awards:
International Prizes
- Nobel Prize for Literature
- Man Booker Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize
Canadian Prizes
- Scotiabank Giller Prize
- Governor General’s Literary Awards
- CBC Literary Prizes
- Canada Reads
- BC Book Prizes
American Prizes
British Prizes
- Women’s Prize for Fiction
- The Desmond Elliot Prize
- Goldsmith’s Prize
- Wellcome Book Prize
INTERNATIONAL
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 113 Nobel Laureates since 1901. Click on the links to get more information.
- The Nobel Prize for Literature for 2018 has been cancelled due to a scandal involving a member of the board, and the subsequent resignations of some other members. The future of the prize is somewhat unstable.
To view a list of past winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, go here.
The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The prize is the world’s most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and publishers.
This year’s prize will be a little bit different. There’s an extra prize being awarded called the Golden Man Booker Prize.
Created in celebration of the prize’s 50th anniversary, the Golden Man Booker Prize will be judged by a panel who will each read a decade’s worth of winners: writer Robert McCrum will take on the 1970s, poet Lemn Sissay will read the 1980s, novelist Kamila Shamsie will look at the 1990s, novelist Simon Mayo will review the 2000s and poet Hollie McNish will be reading the 2010s.
Each judge will pick their favourite book from their assigned decade. The “Golden Five” shortlist will be announced on May 26, 2018. The judges will champion their books and then it’s up to the public to decide the winner. A month-long voting process will take place from May 26 to June 25, with the overall winner declared at the Man Booker 50 Festival on July 8, 2018. – Source
The three Man Booker Prizes for this year are detailed below in order of when they were announced and awarded.
Man Booker International
Longlist (March 12, 2018):
- Laurent Binet (France), Sam Taylor, The 7th Function of Language (Harvill Secker)
- Javier Cercas (Spain), Frank Wynne, The Impostor (MacLehose Press)
- Virginie Despentes (France), Frank Wynne, Vernon Subutex 1 (MacLehose Press)
- Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany), Susan Bernofsky, Go, Went, Gone (Portobello Books)
- Han Kang (South Korea), Deborah Smith, The White Book (Portobello Books)
- Ariana Harwicz (Argentina), Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff, Die, My Love (Charco Press)
- László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet & George Szirtes, The World Goes On (Tuskar Rock Press)
- Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain), Camilo A. Ramirez, Like a Fading Shadow (Tuskar Rock Press)
- Christoph Ransmayr (Austria), Simon Pare, The Flying Mountain (Seagull Books)
- Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq), Jonathan Wright, Frankenstein in Baghdad (Oneworld)
- Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Jennifer Croft, Flights (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
- Wu Ming-Yi (Taiwan), Darryl Sterk, The Stolen Bicycle (Text Publishing)
- Gabriela Ybarra (Spain), Natasha Wimmer, The Dinner Guest (Harvill Secker)
Shortlist (April 12, 2018):
- Virginie Despentes (France), Frank Wynne, Vernon Subutex 1 (MacLehose Press)
- Han Kang (South Korea), Deborah Smith, The White Book (Portobello Books)
- László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet & George Szirtes, The World Goes On (Tuskar Rock Press)
- Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain), Camilo A. Ramirez, Like a Fading Shadow (Tuskar Rock Press)
- Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq), Jonathan Wright, Frankenstein in Baghdad (Oneworld)
- Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Jennifer Croft, Flights (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Winner: Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Jennifer Croft, Flights (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Golden Man Booker
Shortlist
- Lincoln In the Bardo – George Saunders
- The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
- Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
- In A Free State – V.S. Naipul
- Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Winner: The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Man Booker Prize
Longlist
- Belinda Bauer (UK) Snap (Bantam Press)
- Anna Burns (UK) Milkman (Faber & Faber)
- Nick Drnaso (USA) Sabrina (Granta Books)
- Esi Edugyan (Canada) Washington Black (Serpent’s Tail)
- Guy Gunaratne (UK) In Our Mad And Furious City (Tinder Press)
- Daisy Johnson (UK) Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)
- Rachel Kushner (USA) The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)
- Sophie Mackintosh (UK) The Water Cure (Hamish Hamilton)
- Michael Ondaatje (Canada) Warlight (Jonathan Cape)
- Richard Powers (USA) The Overstory (William Heinemann)
- Robin Robertson (UK) The Long Take (Picador)
- Sally Rooney (Ireland) Normal People (Faber & Faber)
- Donal Ryan (Ireland) From A Low And Quiet Sea (Doubleday Ireland)
Shortlist
- Anna Burns (UK) Milkman (Faber & Faber)
- Esi Edugyan (Canada) Washington Black (Serpent’s Tail)
- Daisy Johnson (UK) Everything Under (Jonathan Cape)
- Rachel Kushner (USA) The Mars Room (Jonathan Cape)
- Richard Powers (USA) The Overstory (William Heinemann)
- Robin Robertson (UK) The Long Take (Picador)
Winner: Milkman by Anna Burns
To view a list of past winners, go here.
CANADIAN
The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, who passed away from cancer the year before. The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction – long format or short stories – and endowed a cash prize annually of $25,000.00, the largest purse for literature in the country.
- Longlist announced: Monday, September 17, 2018
- Shortlist announced: Monday, October 1, 2018
- Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists
October-November, 2018 - Winner announced: November 19, 2018
- #GillerWinner Twitter chat: November, 2018
Longlist
- Beirut Hellfire Society – Rawi Hage
- French Exit – Patrick DeWitt
- Jonny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead
- Motherhood – Sheila Heti
- An Ocean of Minutes – Thea Lim
- Our Homesick Songs – Emma Hooper
- Something for Everyone – Lisa Moore
- Songs for the Cold of Heart – Eric Dupont, translated by Peter McCambridge
- Split Tooth – Tanya Tagaq
- Vi – Kim Thúy
- Washington Black – Esi Edugyan
- Zolitude: Stories – Paige Cooper
Shortlist
- French Exit – Patrick DeWitt
- Motherhood – Sheila Heti
- An Ocean of Minutes – Thea Lim
- Songs for the Cold of Heart – Eric Dupont, translated by Peter McCambridge
- Split Tooth – Tanya Tagaq
- Washington Black – Esi Edugyan
For more Canadian literature of the season, check out Crazy for CanLit.
Governor General’s Literary Awards
As Canada’s national literary awards, the GGs represent the rich diversity of Canadian literature. Some 1,600 books are submitted each year from English and French-language publishers representing authors, translators and illustrators from across Canada, in seven categories.
- Finalists and winners are usually announced in October.
Search submitted titles here.
More information on the awards and countdown to next event can be found here.
Michael Ondaatje. Carol Shields. George Bowering. Robert Munsch. Susan Musgrave. Leon Rooke. Gail Anderson-Dargatz. Since 1979, the CBC Literary Prizes have recognized Canada’s brightest literary stars on the rise.
CBC Short Story Prize | CBC Creative Non-Fiction Prize | CBC Poetry Prize
The BC Book Prizes, established in 1985, celebrate the achievements of British Columbia writers and publishers. The seven Prizes are presented annually at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala in the spring, with the winner of The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence being announced beforehand at the annual BC Book Prizes Soirée.
See a full list of winners and finalists here.
AMERICAN
The National Book Award is one of the nation’s most prestigious literary prizes and has a stellar record of identifying and rewarding quality writing. In 1950, William Carlos Williams was the first Winner in Poetry, the following year William Faulkner was honored in Fiction, and so on through the years. Many previous Winners of the National Book Award are now firmly established in the canon of American literature, such as Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Jonathan Franzen, Denis Johnson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Adrienne Rich.
The National Book Award Finalists will be announced on October 14th; Winners will be announced at a gala dinner and ceremony in New York on November 18th. For more information on the Awards and a list of this year’s judges, visit www.nationalbook.org.
- Longlists Announced: Mid-September
- Finalists Announced: October 10, 2018
- National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner (Winners announced): November 14, 2018
BRITISH
One of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, the BAILEYS Women’s Prize for Fiction – previously known as the Orange Prize for Fiction – celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.
Longlist:
- H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker
- The Idiot by Elif Batuman
- Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
- Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
- Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
- The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Sight by Jessie Greengrass
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy
- Elmet by Fiona Mozley
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
- See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
- A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert
- Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
- The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Shortlist: April 23, 2018
Winner: June 6, 2018
The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for a first novel written in English and published in the UK. Worth £10,000 to the winner, the prize is named after the literary agent and publisher, Desmond Elliott. Books eligible for the 2018 prize must have been published between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018.
Longlist: Will be announced in April
Shortlist: Will be announced in May
Winner: Will be announced at the end of June
The National Book Awards showcases the best of British writing & publishing, whilst celebrating books with wide popular appeal, critical acclaim and commercial success. There are 11 categories. The awards are run by Cactus TV Ltd with developmental help from a cross-industry steering group.
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
The Award is given annually. The prize of €100,000 is awarded to the author of the winning book. However, if the winning book is in English translation, €75,000 is awarded to the author and €25,000 to the translator.
Longlist:
It’s very long. You can see it in full here.
Shortlist:
- Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky, translated from the original German by Tim Mohr
- The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera, translated from the original Spanish by Lisa Dillman
- The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, translated from the original Norwegian by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw
- Human Acts by Han Kang, translated from the original Korean by Deborah Smith
- Distant Light by Antonio Moresco, translated from the original Italian by Richard Dixon
- Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye, translated from the original French by Jordan Stump
Winner announced: June 13, 2018
The Folio Prize is open to all works of fiction written in English and published in the UK. All genres and all forms of fiction are eligible. The format of first publication may be print or digital.
The Prize will be awarded in March for books published in the previous calendar year.
Shortlist:
- Anything Is Possible – Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
- Conversations With Friends – Sally Rooney (Faber)
- Exit West – Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
- Ghosts of the Tsunami – Richard Lloyd Parry (Jonathan Cape)
- Once Upon A Time In The East: A Story of Growing Up – Xiaolu Guo (Chatto & Windus)
- Reservoir 13 – Jon McGregor (4th Estate)
- The Day That Went Missing – Richard Beard (Harvill Secker)
- White Tears – Hari Kunzru (Hamish Hamilton)
Winner announced: May 8, 2018
David Cohen Prize for Literature
Awarded biennially, this £40,000 prize recognises a lifetime’s achievement in literature, honouring a writer in the English language who is a citizen of the UK or the Republic of Ireland. The winner of the prize is nominated and selected by a panel of judges comprising authors, literary critics and academics. No shortlist is announced. The John S. Cohen Foundation finances the prize and the Arts Council England provides a further £12,500 for the Clarissa Luard Award, which the winner of the David Cohen Prize awards to a literature organisation that supports young writers or an individual writer under the age of 35. Founded 1991. (source)
The Costa Book Awards is one of the UK’s most prestigious and popular literary prizes and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
Since their launch in 1971, the awards have rewarded a wide range of excellent books and authors across all genres.
Uniquely, the prize has five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book – with one of the five winning books selected as the overall Costa Book of the Year. It is the only prize which places children’s books alongside adult books in this way.
- Category shortlists announced November 21, 2017
- Category winners announced January 2, 2018
- Costa book of the year announced January 30, 2018
Shortlists:
2017 Costa Novel Award shortlist
- Jon McGregor for Reservoir 13 (4th Estate)
- Stef Penney for Under a Pole Star (Quercus)
- Kamila Shamsie for Home Fire (Bloomsbury Circus)
- Sarah Winman for Tin Man (Tinder Press)
2017 Costa First Novel Award shortlist
- Xan Brooks for The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times (Salt)
- Karl Geary for Montpelier Parade (Harvill Secker)
- Gail Honeyman for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins)
- Rebecca F. John for The Haunting of Henry Twist (Serpent’s Tail)
2017 Costa Biography Award shortlist
- Xiaolu Guo for Once Upon a Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up (Chatto & Windus)
- Caroline Moorehead for A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rossellis and the Fight Against Mussolini (Chatto & Windus)
- Rebecca Stott for In The Days of Rain (4th Estate)
- Professor Stephen Westaby for Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table (HarperCollins) Read an exclusive blog by the author
2017 Costa Poetry Award shortlist
- Kayo Chingonyi for Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus)
- Helen Dunmore for Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe Books)
- Sinéad Morrissey for On Balance (Carcanet)
- Richard Osmond for Useful Verses (Picador)
2017 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist
- Sarah Crossan for Moonrise (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
- Lissa Evans for Wed Wabbit (David Fickling Books)
- Kiran Millwood Hargrave for The Island at the End of Everything (Chicken House)
- Katherine Rundell for The Explorer (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
Category Winners:
* First Novel Award – Gail Honeyman for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – the story of a survivor of a childhood trauma that depicts the loneliness of life and the simple power of kindness, which is to be adapted for the big screen by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine. You can read our exclusive interview with Gail here.
* Novel Award – Jon McGregor for Reservoir 13, the story of many lives haunted by one family’s loss, which the judges called ‘hypnotic, compelling and original’.
* Costa Biography Award – Rebecca Stott for In The Days of Rain, a family memoir about life – her late father’s and then her own – inside the Exclusive Brethren, a Christian fundamentalist separatist cult.
* Poetry Award – Helen Dunmore (posthumously) for Inside the Wave, her tenth and final collection which explores the borderline between the living and the dead and includes her final poem, ‘Hold out your arms’, written shortly before her death in June 2017.
* Children’s Book Award – Katherine Rundell for The Explorer, an adventure story of four children fighting for survival in the Amazon rainforest, inspired by an expedition Rundell made to the Amazon and Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea (itself shortlisted for this Award in 2001).
Costa Book of the Year: Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
Launched in 2006, the annual International Dylan Thomas Prize is one of the most prestigious awards for young writers, aimed at encouraging raw creative talent worldwide. It celebrates and nurtures international literary excellence.
Longlist:
- Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Stay With Me (Canongate Books)
- Kayo Chingonyi, Kumukanda (Vintage – Chatto & Windus)
- Meena Kandasamy, When I Hit You (Atlantic Books)
- Lisa McInerney, The Blood Miracles (John Murray)
- Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties (Serpent’s Tail / Graywolf)
- Fiona Mozley, Elmet (JM Originals)
- Gwendoline Riley, First Love (Granta)
- Sally Rooney, Conversations With Friends (Faber & Faber)
- Emily Ruskovich, Idaho (Vintage – Chatto & Windus)
- Gabriel Tallent, My Absolute Darling (4th Estate / Riverhead Books)
- Eley Williams, Attrib. and Other Stories (Influx Press)
- James Womack, On Trust: A Book of Lies (Carcanet Press)
Shortlist:
- Zambian-born poet, MC and music producer Kayo Chingonyi (31) for his debut collection of poetry Kumukanda, which explores the rites of passage boys go through to become men, the intersection of masculinity and race and what it means to be British and not British, all at once.
- Cuban-American short-story writer Carmen Maria Machado’s (31) debut short story collection Her Body & Other Parties explores the eroticism, violence and emotion of the female experience through a potent mix of science fiction, ghost stories and fairytales.
- Six-time British novelist Gwendoline Riley (39) has been shortlisted for First Love, a compelling tale of toxic love and poisonous partnerships which has been shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Goldsmiths Prize.
- Irish debut novelist and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Sally Rooney (27) has been called the “Salinger for the Snapchat generation” and her runaway success Conversations with Friends.
- Debut American novelist Emily Ruskovich (33) is shortlisted for her thriller hit Idaho, which tells the story of a mother suddenly killing her six-year-old daughter.
- American thriller author Gabriel Tallent (30) has been shortlisted for his debut novel My Absolute Darling, called “the year’s must-read novel” by The Times and “a masterpiece” by Stephen King.
Winner announced: May 10, 2018
Republic of Consciousness Prize
The winner will be chosen based on two criteria, perfectly expressed on the Galley Beggar website as ‘hardcore literary fiction and gorgeous prose’.
Eligible publishers will have a maximum of five full-time paid people working for them.
The prize is open to UK and Irish publishers. One novel or single author collection of short stories per publisher can be submitted in the calendar year.
The shortlist will be decided by a small group of booksellers and online reviewers, and the prize is run by James Tookey.
Timing: Longlist announced December 2017, shortlist of five books in February 2018 and winner announced at an event in March/April (date TBD).
Shortlist:
- Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz, tr. Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff (Charco Press)
- Gaudy Bauble by Isabel Waidner (Dostoevsky Wannabe)
- Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre, tr. Sophie Lewis (Les Fugitives)
- We that are Young by Preti Taneja (Galley Beggar Press)
- Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams (Influx Press)
- Darker with the Lights on by David Hayden (Little Island Press)
Winner:
Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams (Influx Press)
List of winners and nominees on Goodreads here.
The Wellcome Book Prize is an annual award, open to new works of fiction or non-fiction. To be eligible for entry, a book should have a central theme that engages with some aspect of medicine, health or illness. This can cover many genres of writing – including crime, romance, popular science, sci fi and history.
Longlist:
- Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
- The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s quest to transform the grisly world of Victorian medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
- In Pursuit of Memory: The fight against Alzheimer’s (John Murray) by Joseph Jebelli (UK) Non-fiction
- Plot 29: A memoir by Allan Jenkins
- The White Book by Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith
- With the End in Mind: Dying, death and wisdom in an age of denial by Kathryn Mannix
- Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
- To Be a Machine: Adventures among cyborgs, utopians, hackers, and the futurists solving the modest problem of death by Mark O’Connell
- I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen brushes with death by Maggie O’Farrell
- Mayhem: A memoir by Sigrid Rausing
- Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst by Robert Sapolsky
- The Vaccine Race: How scientists used human cells to combat killer viruses by Meredith Wadman
Shortlist:
- Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Nigeria) Canongate Books
- The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris (USA) Allen Lane, Penguin Press
- With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix (UK) William Collins, HarperCollins
- To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell (Ireland) Granta Books
- Mayhem: A memoir by Sigrid Rausing (UK/Sweden) Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books
- The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman (USA/Canada) Doubleday, Transworld
Winner announced: Monday, April 30, 2018
Fiction at its most novel. The Goldsmiths Prize was established in 2013 to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the University and to reward fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. The annual prize of £10,000 is awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterizes the genre at its best.
Timeline for 2018 prize:
Prize open for submissions: 26 January 2018
Closing date for submission of entry forms: 23 March 2018
Closing date for submission of finished books: 29 June 2018
Shortlist announced: 26 September 2018
Winner announced: 14 November 2018
The British Book Awards or Nibbies honours and celebrates the commercial successes of publishers, authors and bookshops. Organised by The Bookseller, it culminates in the stand-out event of the publishing year, The British Book Awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House hotel.
Alongside trade accolades such as publisher of the year and book retailer of the year, The British Book Awards announces seven individual books of the year: Children’s; Debut fiction; Fiction; Crime & Thriller; Non-fiction: Lifestyle; Non-fiction: Narrative and (new in 2018) AudioBook. An overall Book of the Year is then chosen from the individual winners.
Also new in 2018, The British Book Awards celebrates an author, or illustrator, who has achieved stunning commercial success alongside making a genuine contribution to the general health of the book world.
The Nibbies was launched in 1990 by Fred Newman, founder and editor of Publishing News and taken over by The Bookseller in 2017. There have been many notable winners over the years. Faber was the first Publisher of the Year in 1990 and in 2017 the honour went to Pan Macmillan. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scooped Book of the Year in 2006. In 2017, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent took that overall honour.
The Orwell Foundation uses the work of George Orwell to celebrate honest writing and reporting, uncover hidden lives and confront uncomfortable truths.
Awarded annually, this prize seeks out the best books by British/British resident BAME writers and awards one winner £1,000. The prize is unique in that it accepts entries published in the UK in 2017 by a writer of colour. Entries can be fiction, non-fiction, short story, graphic novel, poetry, children’s books, YA, teen and all genres. The prize is also open to self-published writers. The aim is the find the best writers of colour in the country.
Started by authors Sunny Singh and Nikesh Shukla and Media Diversified, with support from The Authors’ Club and a prize donated by an anonymous benefactor the prize exists, to celebrate the achievements of British writers of colour.
The Clarissa Luard Award for Independent Publishers recognises excellence and creativity in literary publishing, awarding one independent publisher from the UK or Ireland a cash prize of £10,000.
