The Franz Kafka Prize is an international

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...

presented in honour of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

, the Jewish, Bohemian,

German-language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. The prize was first awarded in 2001 and is co-sponsored by the

Franz Kafka Society The Franz Kafka Society (; ) is a non-profit organisation established in 1990 to celebrate the heritage of German Language literature in Prague. The society is co-sponsor the annual Franz Kafka Prize. Membership currently stands at around 1000 peop ...

and the city of

Prague, Czech Republic Prague ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 m ...

Award information and history

At a presentation held annually in the Old Town Hall (Prague), the recipient receives $10,000, a diploma, and a bronze statuette. Each award is often called the "Kafka Prize" or "Kafka Award". The award earned some prestige in the mid 2000s by foreshadowing the Nobel Prize when two of its winners went on to win the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

the same year, Elfriede Jelinek (2004) and

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

(2005). The criteria for winning the award include the artwork's "humanistic character and contribution to cultural, national, language icand

religious tolerance Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...

, its existential, timeless character, its generally human validity and its ability to hand over ica testimony about our times."

Award winners

Previous winners.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2001 establishments in the Czech Republic Awards established in 2001 Czech literary awards Franz Kafka Kafka Literary awards honoring writers Literary awards honoring lifetime achievement

Award information and history

Award winners

See also

References

External links