Hawthornden Prize
British literary award
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The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award given annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the previous calendar year.
| Hawthornden Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | "imaginative literature" (poetry or prose) by British, Irish or British-based authors |
| First award | 1919 |
| Website | www |
The prize is for a book in English, not for a translation. Previous winners of the prize are excluded from the shortlist. Unlike other major literary awards, the Hawthornden Prize does not solicit submissions.[1] There have been several gap years without a recipient (1945–57, 1959, 1966, 1971–73, and 1984–87).[2]
The Hawthornden Prize was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. It, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, are Britain's oldest literary awards.[3][4]
The award offered £100 in 1936. It had increased to £2,000 by 1995, and by 2017 it was worth £15,000.[5][6][7] It was formerly administered by the Hawthornden Trust set up by Warrender,[8] and sponsored by the private trust of Drue Heinz.[7] It is currently administered by Hawthornden Foundation, established by Drue Heinz.[1]