Throughout the calendar year, there are many literature prizes for genres such as crime writing, science fiction, poetry, short stories and so on.

This section of the Books' zone aims to give you a flavour of what's out there and lists current winners and links to official websites. For all authors and titles, you can check our catalogue [1] 24/7 and reserve titles online.

Nobel Prize for Literature

Tomas Tranströmer

[2]

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2011 was awarded to Sweden's most famous living poet, Tomas Tranströmer, "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality".

Nobel website [3]

The prize is awarded annually in October

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Awarded at the end of May for foreign fiction translated into English and published in the UK during 2010. Nominees include Orhan Pamuk and Per Petterson. For more details, click here [4]

2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

10 novels have been shortlisted for the International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award, from a total of 162 novels nominated by 166 public library systems in 126 cities worldwide.

For the first time, the shortlist included novels by three Irish authors; Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, Brooklyn by Colm Toibín and Love and Summer by William Trevor.

The International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award is worth €100,000 and is the world’s most prestigious literary prize nominated by public libraries world-wide.

The 2011 winner was Colum McCann for his novel, Let the Great World Spin [5]

Man Booker International Prize 2011

The prize was awarded in May 2011 to Philip Roth from the following shortlist.

The finalists

    * Wang Anyi »
    * Juan Goytisolo »
    * James Kelman »
    * John le Carré »
    * Amin Maalouf »
    * David Malouf »
    * Dacia Maraini »
    * Rohinton Mistry »
    * Philip Pullman »
    * Marilynne Robinson »
    * Philip Roth »
    * Su Tong »
    * Anne Tyler »

The prize is worth £60,000 to the winner and is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.

The winner is chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel; there are no submissions from publishers. Canadian writer Alice Munro won the 2009 prize, Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe won the 2007 prize and Albanian writer, Ismail Kadare won the inaugural prize in 2005 and went on to gain worldwide recognition for his work. In addition, there is a separate prize for translation and, if applicable, the winner can choose a translator of his or her work into English to receive a prize of £15,000.

The Man Booker International Prize [6] echos and reinforces the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that literary excellence will be its sole focus.

[7]

The Irish Book Awards

2010 winners include:

Best Irish Newcomer of the Year:

JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President by Ryan Tubridy [8]

Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year

Room by Emma Donoghue [9]

Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award

Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan [10]

Irish Book Awards website [11]

The prizes are awarded in November

Crime Writers Association

Dagger Awards [12]

[12]

The shortlist for the 2011 awards have been announced and are available to view here [12]

The winners of the 2010 CWA Gold, Ian Fleming Steel, and John Creasey Daggers were:

Belinda Bauer (above left) won the CWA Gold Dagger with Blacklands, published by Corgi;

Simon Conway (above right) won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger with A Loyal Spy, published by Hodder & Stoughton

Ryan David Jahn won the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger with Acts of Violence, published by Macmillan New Writing.

Johan Theorin won the CWA International Dagger with The Darkest Room,

Ariana Franklin the Dagger in the Library award,

and Ruth Dudley Edwards the Non-Fiction Dagger for Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing & the Families’ Pursuit of Justice.

Arthur C.Clarke Award: Best Science Fiction Novel

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes has been declared the best science fiction novel of the year and the 25^th winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award which was announced 27^th April 2011. Published by Angry Robot Books, the novel is set in an alternate modern Johannesburg where psychic criminal guilt can take physical animal form and has been described as “Jeff Noon crossed with Raymond Chandler” and a novel that “sinks its claws into you.”.
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is presented for best science fiction novel of the year and selected from a list of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.