Twenty years after she won the Man Booker prize for her book, acclaimed author Arundhati Roy has yet again made it to the list of probables to win the prestigious award. Nominated for her much-anticipated book – The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati will get Rs 42 lakh as the winning amount if she bags the 2017 Man Booker prize. Roy is listed among 13 eminent authors across the world who have been nominated for the prestigious award. She earlier won the award in 1997 for her book The God of Small Things.
The 13 books announced on Thursday were chosen from 144 novels submitted by publishers. Founded in 1969 and originally open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Till now, four Indian novelists including Salman Khurshid ( Midnight’s children), Arvind Adiga (White Tiger), Kiran Desai (The inheritance of loss) and of course Roy for God of small things have won this award. VS Naipaul, who is of Indian descent, had won the Booker back in 1971 for ‘In a Free State.
Apart from the literary recognition, the financial support also holds a key importance as a book is the culmination of years of hard work of the authors as well as the publishers. Here we have enlisted six international literary awards that pay handsomely to its recipient.
1) Pulitzer prize:
pulitzer prize
Pulitzer prize is awarded for excellence in newspaper journalism, literary achievements, musical composition. There are 21 Pulitzer categories. In 20 of those categories the winners receive a $15,000 (Rs 9,61957) cash award and a certificate. Only the winner in the Public Service category of the Journalism competition is awarded a gold medal. The prize was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher.
2) Nobel Prize:
Nobel prize
The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, as is the Prize in Economic Sciences. Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation. (As of 2017, each prize was worth US$920,000 (Rs 5.9 crore).
3) International Dublin Literary Award:
Dublin literary award
It’s an international literary award presented each year for a novel written in English or translated into English. It aims to promote excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, Ireland. At €100,000 ( Rs 75 lakh), the award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. Established in 1994, the award has been administered by Dublin City Public Libraries since its inception. If the winning book is a translation (as it has been nine times), the prize is divided between the writer and the translator, with the writer receiving €75,000 and the translator €25,000.
4) Dylan Thomas Prize:
Dylan Thomas prize
It’s a popular prize for young authors presented annually. Named in honour of popular Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, the award has a remuneration of £30,000 (Rs 25 lakh). The prize honours the shortlisted finalists
for poetry, prose, fictional drama, short story collections, novels, novellas, stage plays and screenplays.
5) Sahitya Academy:
Sahitya Academy award
Sahitya Academy awards are accorded to authors of the most outstanding books in any of the major Indian languages. Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of 100,000 rupees. The purpose of this award is to recognize and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends.
6) Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award:
JK Rowling accepting the award
Established in 2010, this literary award is accorded every second year to a living author whose work resembles Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of fairy tale. It is one of the biggest literary prizes with the winner receiving approximately $90,000 (Rs 57 lakh).The winner receives a bronze sculpture “The Ugly Duckling” by sculptor Stine Ring Hansen. Author JK Rowling (2010), Isabel Allende(2012), Salman Rushdie (2014), Haruki Murakami (2016) are its recipients.
