What Have You Been Reading Lately? The Year in Awards and Accolades

I'm a ritualistic reader of the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Their Culture section is very comprehensive when it comes to interviews with artists, writers and critics. The past two days I've been reading about Jose Emilio Pacheco, the Mexican poet who was awarded the Miguel Cervantes Prize in Spanish Literature and was curious to find out more about him and his work. If you are marveled by details of rhythm and frozen by the sublime beauty of words read this poem entitled Alta Tracion (High Treason)

Recently I had a debate with my good friend and Argentinean writer Eleonora Leone (small debate in which she won) about the validity of literary awards, what they mean, their political inclinations and overall agendas. At the end of our small debate, I concurred with her opinion that awards such as the Nobel in Literature have not always been given to the people that truly deserved them and surely not to some of the most spectacular writers in all of literature: Faulkner, Borges, Marcel Proust, James Joyce or even living legends like Mario Vargas Llosa or Philip Roth, just to name a few.

However some of the literary awards do shed compliment on some extraordinary writters and novels that would have remained in the dark if it was not for the prestige of receiving them (Junot Diaz comes to mind). Most importantly these awards enrich the curiosity of readers like myself who always long to discover writers and novels.

With this in mind I've put together a list of the most important literary prizes that come to mind, because as the old adage goes, Sharing is Caring:


Man Booker Award: Awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.

2009 Winner: Hillary Mantel for Wolf Hall



Pulitzer Prize: Awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.

2009 Winner: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout



National Book Award: Presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year.

2009 Winner: Column McCann for Let The Great World Spin



Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction: Awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year.

2009 Winner: Joseph O'Neill for Netherland



Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Awarded annually to honor the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language.

2009 Winner: Jose Emilio Pacheco



Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize: Awarded to honor the work of the eminent novelist and also to stimulate the creational activity of the Hispanic speech writers.

2009 Winner: William Ospina for El Pais de la Canela



Premio Alfaguara: Awarded by the pretigious editorial house Santillana to an outstanding novel in the Spanish language.

2009 Winner: El Viajero del Siglo by Andres Neuman





Prix Goncourt: (France) Marie NDiaye for Trois femmes puissantes;

Strega Prize (Premio Strega):(Italy) Tiziano Scarpa for Stabat Mate;

Camões Prize (Portuguese, Prémio Camões): (Portugal) Arménio Vieira

Hope you found the list interesting, of course there are some awards that were not covered here and some incredible authors that even though were not mentioned in this list are also worth every single award here. We will cover some new writers and novels in a future entry.

Oh and yes I almost forgot:

Nobel Prize in Literature: Herta Müller