American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Awards

Academy Members (new)

Jules Feiffer

Brendan Gill

Murray Kempton

James Laughlin

Richard Serra

Charles Simic

Garry Wills

August Wilson

Olly Wilson

Charles Wright

Academy Awards in Literature

Given annually to encourage creative achievement in literature.

John Haines, Josephine Humphreys, Miller Williams, Louis Begley R. V. Cassill, Jane Cooper, Stephen Dunn, Horton Foote

Award of Merit Medal for the Short Story

Larry Woiwode

Michael Braude Award for Light Verse

Wendy Cope

Witter Bynner Foundation Prize for Poetry

Established in 1979 and awarded annually to recognize an outstanding younger poet.

Franz Wright

E. M. Forster Award in Literature

Colm Tóibín

Gold Medal for Fiction

William Maxwell

The William Dean Howells Medal

John Updike
Rabbit at Rest

Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction

Awarded annually to the author of the best first fiction published during the preceding year.

Jim Grimsley
Winter Birds

Rome Fellowship in Literature

Henri Cole

Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Foundation Award

Awards given annually for accomplishments in art and literature. The literature award recognizes a work of fiction published in the preceding year which, while not a "commercial success," is considered a literary achievement.

Laura Hendrie
Stygo

Morton Dauwen Zabel Award

Presented in alternating years to poets, fiction writers, and critics, to encourage progressive, original, and experimental tendencies in American literature.

Frank Bidart
(poetry)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
(criticism)

James Tait Black Memorial Book Prize

Sponsored by the University of Edinburgh and awarded annually for the best works of fiction and biography published during the previous year.

Alan Hollinghurst
The Folding Star
(fiction)
(see entry below)

Doris Lessing
Under My Skin
(biography)

Bollingen Prize for Poetry

Kenneth Koch

Booker Prize for Fiction

Britain's major literary prize awarded annually in recognition of a full-length novel.

Pat Barker
The Ghost Road

Hugo Awards

Established in 1953 to recognize notable science fiction works in several categories.

Lois McMaster Bujold
Mirror Dance
(novel)

Mike Resnick
Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge
(novella)

Joe Haldeman
"None So Blind"
(short story)

Lannan Literary Awards

Honors writers of distinctive literary merit. The award carries a cash prize of $50,000.

Louis de Bernières, Mary Morrissy, Alice Munro
(fiction)

Thomas Berry, Richard K. Nelson, Scott Russell Sanders
(nonfiction)

Hayden Carruth, Carol Ann Duffy, Li-Young Lee, Arthur Sze
(poetry)

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Awarded annually to an outstanding American poet.

A. R. Ammons

Los Angeles Times Book Awards

Honors technique and vision in various categories.

William Boyd
The Blue Afternoon
(fiction)

Robert Pinsky
The Inferno of Dante
(translation)

Doris Lessing
Under My Skin
(biography)

Mark Merlis
American Studies
(Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction)

Lenore Marshall/Nation Poetry Prize

Established in 1974 to honor the author of the year's outstanding collection of poems published in the United States.

Marilyn Hacker
Winter Numbers
(see entry below)

National Book Awards

Established in 1950 to honor and promote American books of literary distinction in various categories.

Philip Roth
Sabbath's Theater
(fiction)

Stanley Kunitz
Passing Through: The Later Poems New and Selected
(poetry)

Tina Rosenberg
The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts after Communism
(nonfiction)

National Book Critics Circle Awards

Founded in 1974 to recognize superior literary quality in American literature in several categories.

Carol Shields
The Stone Diaries
(fiction)
(see entry below)

Lynn H. Nicholas
The Rape of Europa
(nonfiction)

Mikal Gilmore
Shot in the Heart
(biography)

Nebula Awards

Established in 1965 to honor significant works in several categories of science fiction published in the United States.

Greg Bear
Moving Mars
(novel)

Mike Resnick
Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge
(novella)

David Gerrold
The Martian Child
(novellette)

Martha Soukup
"A Defense of Social Contracts"
(short story)

New York Drama Critics Circle Award

Presented annually in several categories to encourage excellence in playwriting.

Terrence McNally
Love! Valour! Compassion!
(Best New American Play)
(see entry below)

Tom Stoppard
Arcadia
(Best New Play)
(see entry below)

Nobel Prize in Literature

Awarded annually to recognize the most distinguished body of literary work of an idealistic nature.

Seamus Heaney
(see entry below)

Obie Awards

Given annually to recognize excellence in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theater productions in various categories.

David Mamet
Cryptogram
(best play)
(see entry below)

Ming Cho Lee
(sustained achievement)

David Hancock
The Convention of Cartography
(playwriting)

Tony Kushner
Slavs
(playwriting)

Terrence McNally
Love! Valour! Compassion!
(playwriting)
(see entry below)

Susan Miller
My Left Breast
(playwriting)

PEN American Center Awards

Faulkner Award for Fiction

David Guterson
Snow Falling on Cedars
(see entry below)

Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award

Susan Power
The Grass Dancer
(Best first book of fiction by an American writer)
(see entry below)

Edgar Allan Poe Awards

Presented annually for outstanding achievement in mystery writing.

Mary Willis Walker
The Red Scream
(best novel)

George Dawes Green
The Caveman's Valentine
(best first mystery novel by an American writer)

Lisa Scottoline
Final Appeal
(best original paperback)

Doug Allyn
"The Dancing Bear"
(best short story)

Martin Greenberg
(Ellery Queen Award)

Mickey Spillane
(Grand Master)

Pulitzer Prizes

Awarded in recognition of outstanding accomplishments by American authors in various categories within the fields of journalism, literature, music, and drama. Literary awards usually recognize excellence in works that concern American life.

Carol Shields
The Stone Diaries
(fiction)
(see entry below)

Horton Foote
The Young Man form Atlanta
(drama)
(see entry below)

Doris Kearns Goodwin
No Ordinary Time
(history)

Joan D. Hedrick
Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life
(biography)

Philip Levine
The Simple Truth
(poetry)

Tony Awards

Officially titled the American Theatre Wing's Antoinette Perry Awards, prizes are presented in recognition of outstanding achievement on Broadway.

Terrence McNally
Love! Valour! Compassion!
(best play)
(see entry below)

United States Poet Laureate

Created in 1986 by an act of Congress to honor the career achievement of an American poet.

Robert Hass