2015 Literary Book Award Winners

The book award winners for 2015 are in. This post covers the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and the Man-Booker Prize for fiction.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

The Nobel Prize honors an author “for outstanding contributions in the field of literature.” It is awarded annually. The past winners from the US include Sinclair Lewis, T. S. Elliot, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison to name a few; some heavy hitters in American Literature. The award is a big deal since only one author wins per year for a body of work.

This year the away went to Svetlana Alexievich a Belarus author and journalist. She was born in the Ukraine and writes about life during and after the Soviet Union. She was awarded “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” What that means is that she writes many voices together at the same time in her novels and biographies. She mixes in reporting and interviews to create a collage of a wide range of voices. She is notable also for her criticism of political regimes in the former Soviet Union and in Belarus where she lives now. A very brave thing to do in a land torn by civil war and powerful regimes.

She has very good reviews on Amazon. Here are some of her works in English.




War’s Unwomanly Face
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is awarded yearly to an American author writing about American life. Some past winners are many of the same from the Nobel Prize; Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.

This year the award goes to Anthony Doerr for All the Light We Cannot See.

The National Book Award

The mission of the NBA is to celebrate the best American Literature, expand its audience, and enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. Some notable past winners include William Carlos Williams, Norman Mailer, John Updike, William Faulkner, and Thomas Pynchon to name a few. This award goes to a book and is presented to the author. Many authors have won for numerous books.

The 2015 winner for fiction is Adam Johnson for Fortune Smiles: Stories.

The Man-Booker Prize

The Man-Booker Prize while it remains relatively unknown in the US, is the major award an author can win next to the Nobel Prize. The award takes submissions from many countries and requires that the book me in English and published in the Commonwealth Nations, read former British colonies.

All the awards are a big deal to win, but this one is a step above because it includes many more authors and countries. Some notable winners include Julian Barnes and J. M. Coetzee, two great authors.

The 2015 Man-Booker Prize winner is Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings.

This book also won many other awards and was included in numerous best of the year book lists. Marlon James is the first Jamaican to win the prestigious award and the first on this side of the pond, I believe. The book looks fantastic. It is a fictional account of an attempt to take Bob Marley’s life. It has been described as complicated and difficult, so bring your A reading game.



Those are the winners for the 2015 book season. Have you read any of these books yet? Let us know on our Kindle Literature Facebook page. Don’t forget to like the page for future posts.

2014 Literary Awards

The year’s book award winners are a great place to find books to read and discover new authors. Check out the links and try some samples on your Kindle.  

Nobel Prize in Literature

The highest recognition an author can receive is the Nobel Prize in Literature. The award is given to writers for their body of work. Some notable past winners are: Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014 was awarded to Patrick Modiano "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation".

Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

Dora Bruder

The award is open to writers from around the world. This year, Patrick Modiano, a French novelist was awarded the prize.

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction  is “awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.” There are also many other awards ranging from journalist to nonfiction. The Award was founded in 1918. Some previous winners are Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.

The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction goes to Donna Tartt for The Goldfinch.

The National Book Award

The National Book Award’s mission is to “celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.” This book has a long and varied past and is one of the major awards given to American writers. This is another great place to find books to read and they do a lot of outreach to communities and in supporting public appearances by writers. Faulkner, Pynchon, Updike, McCarthy, and Franzen are some of the past nominees and winners.

The 2014 National Book Award for Fiction goes to Phil Klay for Redeployment.

The Man-Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe, according to Wikipedia. This is a very big deal. This is the biggest of the English Language awards given. They have a long list which they announce very early on and then a short list is selected out of that.

This is a major award to follow because it includes many countries that speak English and covers a diverse range of topics. I discovered a couple of my favorite writers while reading these novels, Julian Barnes and J.M. Coetzee.

The 2014 Man-Booker Prize winner is Richard Flanagan with The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

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2012 Literary Awards

Cover via Amazon

Every year there are a number of awards that highlight some of the best literature and writers. With so much being published and people having less and less time to read, awards are a good place to find books to read. Literature awards are also a good place to follow along with the happenings in the literature world as well as discover new writers. 

Nobel Prize In Literature

One of the highest honors a writer can get is the Nobel Prize in Literature. This award is given to writers for their body of work. It is not limited to a country or type of writing. The award can go to any writer writing in any language. It is a very exciting award because of all the rumors that fly around. “Will so and so finally win?” There is a long list of great writers around the world that are considered for this and you can count on being surprised by the winner. This year was no exception. Mo Yan, a chinese novelist and short story writer, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. This is a very controversial selection and many people, including Chinese dissidents and past prize winners were critical of the choice. No one is critical of his writings. He seems like a fascination writer, one that defends censorship while being censored himself. I had never heard of him before he won the award and it seems he is one of the most well read writers in the world and barely known here in the US. Here are some of his most popular novels.

Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out $8.98
The Garlic Ballads $3.99
Shifu, You'll Do Anything For a Laugh $7.69

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction  is “awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.” There are also many other awards ranging from journalist to nonfiction. The Award was founded in 1918. Some previous winners are Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway. This is yet another controversial year for a coveted award. This years winner is NOBODY! The panel that judges the winner is made up of 3 judges. There were three novels on the short list and each judge chose a different author. It was a three way tie with no winned and so no award will be given in 2012. This has happened a few times in its long history. This is a great award to follow highlighting some of the best fiction by American writers. Here are the three finalist. 

David Foster Wallace - The Pale King $8.89
Karen Russel - Swamplandia! $9.99
Denis Johnson - Train Dreams: A Novella $9.99

English: Announcement of the Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2008 at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm by Horace Engdahl Deutsch: Bekanntgabe des Preisträgers des Literatur-Nobelpreises 2008 durch Horace Engdahl in der Schwedischen Akademie in Stockholm Svenska: Nobelpriset i litteratur år 2008, Horace Engdahl i Svenska Akademien Français : Prix Nobel de littérature pour l'année 2008 Español: El premio Nobel de literatura 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

National Book Award

The National Book Award’s mission is to “celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.” This book has a long and varied past and is one of the major awards given to American writers. This is another great place to find books to read and they do a lot of outreach to communities and in supporting public appearances by writers. Faulkner, Pynchon, Updike, McCarthy, and Franzen are someof the past nominees and winners. This years winner is Louise Erdrich with The Round House.

The Round House $12.99

And the runners up.

Junot Diaz - This Is How You Lose Her $12.99
Dave Eggers - A Hologram for the King $9.99
Ben Fountain - Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel $9.68
Kevin Powers - The Yellow Birds: A Novel $9.99

The Man-Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe, according to Wikipedia. This is a very big deal. This is the biggest of the English Language awards given. They have a long list which they announce very early on and then a short list is selected out of that. They have had their own share of controversy but this year was free of any. Hilary Mantel won for the second time in 5 years for her historical novel Bring Up the Bodies. This is a major award to follow because it includes many countries that speak English and covers a diverse range of topics. I discovered a couple of my favorite writers while reading these novels, Julian Barnes and J.M. Coetzee.

Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel $13.49

Please note all the prices are accurate as of the time of this post, in the US Amazon store. You can check out the other awards given by the different organizations. I study and follow fiction and so these are just the awards that I like to keep up on. I try to read the Pulitzer and the Man Booker every year. They also have many different awards for nonfiction, science fiction, horror, and children’s books.

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