Many literary awards give significant remunerations. This is a list of active literary awards from around the world with a prize of at least or equivalent. Although global in scope and comprising over 35 awards, most of the prizes are in only four currencies: United Arab Emirates dirham, Swedish krona, Euro, and United States dollar.
| ApproximateEquivalent in US$ (October 2024) | Prize amount | Prize name | Type | Host country | Primary language | Notes | Ref(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,361,000 | UAE | Arabic | Award for a single poem. Total prizes for 2nd to 5th positions are approximately $2,723,000. Sister prize of Prince of Poets | [1] | ||||
| 1,092,000 | Premio Planeta de Novela (winner) | Book | Spain | Spanish | See also runner-up of same prize. | [2] | ||
| 1,000,000 | Nobel Prize in Literature | Author | Sweden | Any | There are five Nobel Prizes of 11 million kronor each. | [3] | ||
| 466,500 | Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award | Author | Sweden | Any | Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and people or organisations that work with reading promotion in the area of children's and young adult literature, are eligible for the prize. | [4] | ||
| 272,000 | Prince of Poets | UAE | Arabic | Award for a single poem. Sister prize of Million's Poet | [5] [6] | |||
| 250,000 | US$250,000 | The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize | Author* | United States | English | Open to all arts, not just writers. | [7] | |
| 250,000 | Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language | Author | Mexico | Spanish | Any writer writing in the Spanish language | [8] | ||
| 228,000 | International Ibsen Award | Author* | Norway | Any | Any drama and theater position eligible, not just writers. | [9] | ||
| 218,000 | Prix mondial Cino Del Duca | Author | France | Any | Open to any writer working in either scientific or literary form | [10] | ||
| 200,000 | Sheikh Zayed Book Award | Book | United Arab Emirates | Arabic | 7 awards each valued at AED 750,000 | [11] | ||
| 200,000 | Saudi King Abdullah International Award for Translation | Author | Saudi Arabia | Arabic | 5 awards of 200,000 each (1 million total) | [12] | ||
| 175,000 | Alfaguara Prize | Book | Spain | Spanish | [13] | |||
| 175,000 | Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes | Author | United States | English | Composed of eight awards of $175,000 each. | [14] [15] | ||
| 164,000 | Premio Planeta de Novela (runner-up) | Book | Spain | Spanish | See also winner of same prize. | [16] | ||
| 150,000 | Lannan Literary Awards | Author | United States | English | Composed of three awards of $150,000 each. Prize amount last verified for 2007. | [17] | ||
| 150,000 | FIL Literature Award | Author | Mexico | Spanish | [18] | |||
| 150,000 | US$150,000 | Carol Shields Prize for Fiction | Author | US | English | Prize awards works of fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States. | [19] | |
| 146,000 | Sonning Prize | Author* | Denmark | Any | Open to all arts not just writers. | [20] | ||
| 134,000 | Miguel de Cervantes Prize | Author | Spain | Spanish | [21] | |||
| 134,000 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing | Book | Spain | Any | [22] | |||
| 131,000 | Premio de Novela Fernando Lara | Book | Spain | Spanish | [23] | |||
| 110,000 | Rómulo Gallegos Prize | Book | Venezuela | Spanish | [24] | |||
| 110,000 | Premio Primavera de Novela | Book | Spain | Spanish | [25] | |||
| 110,000 | International Dublin Literary Award | Book | Ireland | English | [26] | |||
| 110,000 | Premio Novela Histórica Alfonso X El Sabio | Book | Spain | Spanish | [27] | |||
| 110,000 | Camões Prize | Author | Portugal Brazil | Portuguese | [28] | |||
| 110,000 | Prémio Leya | Book | Portugal | Portuguese | [29] [30] [31] | |||
| 100,000 | Premio de Traducción Literaria Tomás Segovia | Author | Mexico | Spanish | Translator award | [32] | ||
| 100,000 | Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding | Book | Qatar | Arabic | Translation award. Total award value is $2 million. | [33] | ||
| 100,000 | Nigeria Prize for Literature | Book | Nigeria | English | [34] [35] | |||
| 100,000 | Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing | Author | United States | English | [36] | |||
| 100,000 | Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize | Author | United States | English | [37] [38] | |||
| 100,000 | Wallace Stevens Award | Author | United States | English | [39] | |||
| 100,000 | Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature | Book | United States | English | [40] | |||
| 100,000 | The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards | Author | United States | English | [41] | |||
| 100,000 | Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Awards | Author | United Arab Emirates | Arabic | Composed of five awards of $100,000 each. | [42] | ||
| 100,000 | Park Kyong-ni Prize | Author | South Korea | Any | [43] |
Key
The following awards have a superlative claim within certain defined categories, as described and sourced in the Notes column.
| Equivalent in US$ (April 2016) | Prize amount | Prize name | Type | Host country | Primary language | Claim | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 524,527 | Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award | Children's literature | Sweden | Any | The richest children's literature prize in the world.[44] | ||
| 138,180 | RBA Prize for Crime Writing | Crime fiction | Spain | Any | "The world's most lucrative crime fiction prize." | ||
| 75,000 | Cundill History Prize | Non-fiction and history | Canada | English | "the world's largest non-fiction purse"[45] | ||
| 55,270 | Premio de Narrativa Breve Ribera del Duero | Short story collection | Spain | Spanish | "the largest in the world for a competition of this kind".[46] | ||
| 39,358 | Sunday Times Short Story Award | Short story | United Kingdom | English | "The world's richest short story prize" (single short story).[47] | ||
| 38,081 | Montreal International Poetry Prize | Poetry | Canada | Any | Thought to be the world's richest award for a single-poem.[48] |