Earlier this month, Idaho author Emily Ruskovich took home the International Dublin Literary Award, which The Guardian calls "the world's richest prize for a single novel." The award comes with a whopping €100,000 prize, which amounts to more than $112,000 U.S. Ruskovich told The Guardian that the award "will mean she can 'return much more vigorously to my writing,'" which got me thinking — how much are other major literary prizes worth?
The International Dublin Literary Award may be the most lucrative prize an author could win, but it certainly isn't the only honor to bring a major payday. Winning even the smallest monetary award on this list will earn you $10,000, which, while not necessarily a life-changing amount, is still nothing to sneeze at. I mean, would you pass $10,000 on the street? I didn't think so.
What makes Ruskovich's story of winning the International Dublin Literary Award is the fact that Idaho was one of 141 novels nominated by public libraries from around the world. Ruskovich's book was entered into consideration by only one library, located in Bruges, Belgium. Not only did Ruskovich take home the €100,000 prize, but she also did it based on what appears to be serendipity.
Check out how much other major literary awards are worth below:
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
A new award, founded in 2016, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award "recognizes a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence." The winner receives a $75,000 cash prize.
The Booker Prizes
Awarded to books published in English in the U.K. and Ireland, the Booker Prize comes with a monetary component of £50,000 — about $63,100 U.S. Another award, the Booker International Prize, recognizes books translated into English and published in the U.K. and Ireland. The International Booker Prize has the same £50,000 award, but it is split between the winning author and translator.
The Women's Prize for Fiction
Founded in 1996 as the Orange Prize for Fiction, and rebranded as the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2014, the award known since 2018 as the Women's Prize for Fiction gives its winner £30,000 — nearly $38,000 U.S. The Women's Prize recognizes an outstanding work of literary fiction composed and published by a woman in the previous year.
Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
Like most Pulitzers in Journalism and Letters, the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction comes with a $15,000 cash prize. The monetary portion of the award increased from $10,000 in 2017, following the 100-year anniversary of the awards in 2016. The only prize in the Journalism and Letters category that does not receive a $15,000 award is the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, for which the winning publication receives the Pulitzer gold medal, but no money.
National Book Awards
Finally, there are the National Book Awards, which offer $10,000 cash prizes to winners in five categories — Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Fiction, and Young People's Literature. In addition to these, the National Book Foundation also recognizes its 5 Under 35 honorees, who each receive $1,000.
