What Even is a Book Award?

And should you care?

If you read books, you’ve probably heard of book awards. Or at least caught wind of them, be it from the permanent sticker marring the otherwise pristine cover, the author bio on the back jacket, or the large signs heralding you to a stack of prizewinners at your bookstore. Whether or not you’re aware of these prizes, book awards are a big deal in the literary world.

But what do they mean to us as readers? What are these prizes we often hear being bestowed upon books with such pomp and circumstance, as if being knighted by the queen (RIP), and do they mean that the book is good?

One of my age-old anxieties is how many books I want to read and how little time I have to read them. Sure, I read a lot of books. But my “to-be-read” list is growing exponentially while my “read” pile plods along at a similar annual rate. If I were a company, the investors would be jumping ship.

My point here is that if book prizes are worthy of reader attention and should inform your choice of books, you should know about them. Lucky for you, I’ve created a guide of sorts to enlighten you on five of the most popular book prizes out there. For each one, I’ll cover the general background of the award, like when it started and which books are eligible, how the winner is chosen, and my personal thoughts on the award as a method for choosing books to read and which of these award winners you should read. Off we go!

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The Pulitzer Prize

What’s the deal?: This one is kind of the main one that people know about. The Pulitzer is named after Joseph Pulitzer, which sounds like a fake name, but apparently, it is not. He was a journalist who eventually got rich from running a newspaper, and I’m talking dumb rich. He died on his yacht. Like??? Off of a NEWSPAPER?! Economy was bumping in the late 1800s, I guess…

Pulitzer died in 1912, leaving a $2M grant in his will to Columbia to establish a School of Journalism. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917, though only four were given out.

Today, there are 23 categories for annual Pulitzer prizes, only one of which is in fiction. The annual prize is open to submissions from American authors who published their work in the past year. Winners get $15K and, ideally, a large bump in book sales. This article on how sales of Pulitzer winners tripled (at least) and remained elevated for almost a year following is fascinating– especially cuz $15K in prize money for such a prestigious award feels a bit weak.

How the winner is picked: What’s truly wild to me about the Pulitzer Prize is that there are, and I quote, “no set criteria for judging the Prizes. It is left up to the nominating juries and the Pulitzer Prize Board to determine exactly what makes a work ‘distinguished.’” No thoughts, just vibes, basically.

My take: Here’s what I’ll say– while the selection process may be murky, I have yet to meet a Pulitzer winner in fiction that I didn’t like. I have read several, and while not all of them have been within my typical areas of interest, they have all been, to my judgment, spectacularly well-written. The Pulitzer committees must give a good deal of weight to the quality of writing when it comes to making its decisions. If you’re looking for a book with great writing, fully realized characters, and a well-constructed plot, get your hands on a Pulitzer. I doubt you will be disappointed.

Recommended Reading: Here are a few of my favorite Pulitzer winners that you must (must!!!!!!) read

• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Booker Prize

What’s the deal?: If you’re a fiction reader, you’ve likely come across this one as well. The Booker Prize, or the artist formerly known as The Man Booker Prize, is like the Pulitzer but for books published in the UK and Ireland. The award is presented annually, and the winner receives £50,000.

Prior to the winner's announcement, the Booker Shortlist of 6 titles is announced, with each author on this shortlist receiving £2,500. This prize came about because a handful of ye olde English white dudes wanted to elevate and increase the circulation of literature from the Commonwealth, i.e., keep up with France, who was smoking the competition when it came to literature in the 1960s. Thus, the first Booker Prize was given in 1969.

How the winner is picked: Once again, the criteria for winning is opaque, besides the requirement that the work be published in the last year in the UK and Ireland and written in English. To quote the site, the award is given “to the author of the best (in the opinion of the judges) eligible work of long-form fiction.” Your guess is as good as mine.

My take: I haven’t read as many of these as I would like, though my experience with Booker Prize winners is more varied than my experience with Pulitzers, which has been uniformly positive. I’ve read several Booker Prize Winners, and they have been great. I have also read a Booker Prize Winner that was completely over my head (Milkman by Anna Burns), and as such, did nothing for me. Admittedly, that’s due to my own intellectual shortcomings rather than the work itself, but still.

I’d say that if you’re interested in finding international works that are well written and may not have been on the top of the popular charts (NYT bestsellers, Goodreads Choice, etc.), the Booker Prize winners and the Booker shortlists are great places to start.

Recommended Reading: Some booker prizewinners that I’ve read and loved are as follows.

• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

The National Book Award

What’s the deal?: This is another award for literature published in the United States. Lesser known than the Pulitzer, this prize has five categories of writing: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult, and translated literature. It was started in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association (how fucking charming?! I love it), had brief hiatus due to WWII, then started up again in 1950 and has been awarded annually ever since.

It is run by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to literally just getting books out there to the people. I distrust anything that seems too good to be true, so this whole motivation, although delightful, raises some red flags for me. But what do I know?!

Publishers submit books, and a shortlist of five titles is announced before the winner is announced shortly thereafter. The winner receives $10K, while the shortlist finalists receive $1K.

How the winner is picked: I cannot get over how arbitrary all of these seem; it is hilarious. This one, at least, seems to be a bit more organized. Their website lists how winners are chosen by diverse panels that read all of the books, deliberate, and ultimately decide shortlists and winners “using whatever criteria they deem appropriate.”Please be serious.

My take: If its altruistic mission is to be believed, this is a lovely award. Personally, I love the focus on fiction, and it being an award for readers/by readers is endearing. This is the award to check out if you want to support local bookstores and a do-good national nonprofit dedicated to reading. Of the ones I’ve read, the winners of this award have been better, in my opinion, than those I’ve read of the Booker Award (for whatever that’s worth).

Recommended Reading:

• The World According to Garp by John Irving

• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin

• The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (an inimitable fave)

• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

• Just Kids by Patti Smith

Women’s Prize for Fiction

What’s the deal?: From time immemorial, we have known who runs the world (Girls.) Started in 1996 as a response to the Booker Prize shortlist being all dudes, despite 60% of novels that year being written by women, the women’s prize is for women, by women.

This is a UK-based prize given to a female author (of any nationality) of a novel that is written in English and published in the UK. The Prize is given by the Women’s Prize Trust, a non-profit dedicated to increasing reading, writing, and authorship by women across the globe. The winner receives £30,000.

How the winner is picked: Each year, a panel of five female judges is chosen. These women are “all passionate readers and at the top of their respective professions” and pick the shortlist and winner of the prize. If this is the criteria, I am shocked that I have not yet been asked to judge, but I digress.

Another spectacularly vague set of criteria for choosing the winner, but at the very least, this prize has three “core tenets” around which the judges base their deliberation and decisions: excellence, originality, and accessibility. Word salad, but at least they’re trying?

My take: I am a feminist, and I approve this message!!! The women’s prize has gained prestige over the years, which we love to see. Surprisingly enough, I have not read too many of these, but I have read a handful of finalists. Donna Tartt shows up frequently, whom I worship, so clearly, they’re doing something right. My honest take is that I’m not too sure about these since I haven’t spent enough time with these prize winners myself. But if you want to read more books by female authors, look no further.

Recommended Reading:

• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (finalist)

• The Power by Naomi Alderman

• Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (finalist)

The Hugo Award

What’s the deal?: This one is so fun. Started in 1953, this award is for the best science fiction or fantasy work published in a given year. It’s organized by the World Science Fiction Society and is awarded to the categories of novel, novella, novelette, and short story. Works for consideration can be from anywhere worldwide and published in any language.

Also they had a big scandal this past year due to excluding certain authors due to censorship, since this year’s award was hosted in China. Sorry to be messy, but who doesn't love a scandal? Read more about the gory details here and here.

How is the winner picked?: There are no submissions, but rather, the World Science Fiction Society members nominate works and pick winners using an exceedingly convoluted, albeit democratic, voting system. You can read more about it here.

My take: In recent years, I’ve grown to love sci-fi, and though I’ve read a few of these, I will definitely pick up more of past Hugo award winners at my local library. Sci-fi always gets me out of my comfort zone, surprises me, and expands my imagination. The past winners/finalists I’ve read have been exceptional, so I’m looking forward to digging into some of these.

Recommended Reading:

• Exhalation by Ted Chiang (Short story)

• Mono no Aware by Ken Liu (Short Story)

• Coraline by Neil Geiman

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Final Thoughts

I didn’t know much about these prizes before researching them for this newsletter. I’m so delighted that many are just purely for the love of the game; I’m obsessed.

THAT SAID– it is insane to me how willfully indeterminate the judging criteria are for all of these prizes. I mean, I am assuming all of these judges respect their appointments and want to develop thoughtful criteria and reviews of each book so they can choose a winner…but it is hard to take any of this seriously when the answer to “How are these prizes decided?” is basically “lol we just make it up.”

Ultimately, I highly recommend the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners and shortlists if you're looking for great writing. I need to spend more time with Hugo Award Women’s Prize winners and will aim to prioritize those going forward.

What do you think? Any favorite book prizes, or ones I didn’t mention? There are a ton more, obviously–this post was just starting to get long. Tell me all the things in the comments!

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📖 Currently reading:

The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner

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Wellness, by Nathan Hill, 5/5 stars

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