Adult book awards

A list of literary awards and prizes celebrating the best in fiction and non-fiction from the UK and around the world.

 

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

An award for the best of non-fiction, open to authors of any nationality. It covers all non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. 

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

Britain's only award for Comic Writing has been awarded to some true literary classics over the years with a very distinctive prize for the winning author; a Jeroboam of Bollinger and a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig,  named after the winning novel.

The Booker Prize

Established in 1969, the Booker Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the United Kingdom.

British Book Awards

Covering a range of genres across several categories for children and adults. The overall winner is voted for by the public.

Costa Book Awards

Formally the Whitebread Book Awards, the Costa Book Awards honour authors from the UK and Ireland nominated in one of the five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.

Forward Prizes for Poetry

These prizes cover three categories: Best Collection, Best First Collection, and Best Single Poem.

The International Booker Prize

Introduced in 2016, this prize awards the best work of fiction written in a foreign language, translated into English and published in the UK. 

The International Dublin literary award

Now in its 23rd year, this award is unique amongst international literary prizes as all the titles are nominated by libraries from around the world.

The International Dylan Thomas Prize

The best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under. 

The James Tait Black Prizes

 Established in 1919, are the James Tait Black Prizes are Britain's longest running literary awards.

The Jhalak Prize

 This prize seeks out the best books by British/British resident BAME writers.

The McIlvanney Prize

Bloody Scotland’s annual prize awarded to the best Scottish Crime book of the year.

Nobel Prize for Literature

The world renowned international literary prize awarded annually in December

The Orwell Prizes

These prizes focus on political writing, and consist of The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Orwell Prize for Political Writing (formerly the Orwell Prize for Books). 

The Rathbones Folio Prize

This prize is awarded to the best new work of literature published in the English language, judged by members of the Academy.

The Saltire Literary Awards

These awards cover six categories: the best Research Book, History Book, Poetry Book, First Book, Fiction Book and Non-Fiction Book. Of these six categories one book wins the Saltire Book of the Year award. 

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

 Announced each year at the Borders Book Festival, this prestigious award has built quite a reputation since it began in 2010.

Wellcome Book Prize

A prize awarding the best new books that engage with an aspect of medicine, health or illness. 

Women's Prize for Fiction

Celebrating the work of female fiction writers from around the world since 1996

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