Neustadt International Prize for Literature

The Neustadt International Prize for Literature was established as the Books Abroad International Prize for Literature in 1969 by Ivar Ivask, editor of Books Abroad. It was subsequently renamed the Books Abroad/Neustadt Prize, and the award assumed its present name in 1976. It is the first international literary award of this scope to originate in the United States and is one of the very few international prizes for which poets, novelists, and playwrights are equally eligible.[7]

The Prize is a silver eagle feather, a certificate, and $50,000 USD. The award was endowed by Walter and Doris Neustadt[9] of Ardmore, Oklahoma to ensure the award in perpetuity.[10]

The charter of the Neustadt Prize stipulates that the award be given in recognition of outstanding achievement in poetry, fiction, or drama and that it be conferred solely on the basis of literary merit. Any living author writing in any language is eligible, provided only that at least a representative portion of his or her work is available in English, the language used during the jury deliberations. The prize may serve to crown a lifetime's achievement or to direct attention to an important body of work that is still developing. The prize is not open to application.[11]

Candidates are selected by a jury of at least seven members. Selection is not limited by geographic area, language or genre.

The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is the only international literary award of this scope developed in the United States. It is one of few international prizes for which poets, novelists and playwrights alike are equally eligible.

Source:[12]

Year	Name	Country	Language(s)	Ref(s)
1970	Giuseppe Ungaretti	Italy	Italian
1972	Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia	Spanish
1974	Francis Ponge	France	French
1976	Elizabeth Bishop	United States	English
1978	Czesław Miłosz	Poland	Polish
1980	Josef Škvorecký	Czechoslovakia/ Canada	Czech
1982	Octavio Paz	Mexico	Spanish
1984	Paavo Haavikko	Finland	Finnish
1986	Max Frisch	Switzerland	German
1988	Raja Rao	India/ United States	English
1990	Tomas Tranströmer	Sweden	Swedish
1992	João Cabral de Melo Neto	Brazil	Portuguese
1994	Edward Kamau Brathwaite	Barbados	English
1996	Assia Djebar	Algeria/ France	French	[13]
1998	Nuruddin Farah	Somalia	English
2000	David Malouf	Australia	English
2002	Álvaro Mutis	Colombia	Spanish	[14]
2004	Adam Zagajewski	Poland	Polish	[15][16]
2006	Claribel Alegría	Nicaragua/ El Salvador	Spanish	[17][18][19]
2008	Patricia Grace	New Zealand	English	[20][21][22]
2010	Duo Duo	China	Chinese	[23][24]
2012	Rohinton Mistry	India/ Canada	English	[5][6]
2014	Mia Couto	Mozambique	Portuguese	[25][26]
2016	Dubravka Ugrešić	Croatia/ Netherlands	Croatian	[27]
2018	Edwidge Danticat	United States (Haitian American)	English	[28]
2020	Ismail Kadare	Albania	Albanian	[29]

Source:[30]

Year	Name	Country	Language(s)	Ref(s)
2003	Mildred D. Taylor	United States	English
2005	Brian Doyle	Canada	English
2007	Katherine Paterson	United States	English
2009	Vera B. Williams	United States	English
2011	Virginia Euwer Wolff	United States	English
2013	Naomi Shihab Nye	United States	English
2015	Meshack Asare	Dominion of Ghana	English
2017	Marilyn Nelson	United States	English
2019	Margarita Engle	United States (Cuban)	English

• List of literary awards

• Neustadt International Prize for Literature, official website
• Neustadt International Prize for Literature winners listed by year (1970 - present)