The Sapir Prize for Literature of
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
is a prestigious
[ annual ]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 for a work of literature in the Hebrew language. The prize is awarded by Mifal HaPayis (Israel's state lottery
A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...
), and is a part of the organization's cultural initiatives. It bears the name of the late Pinhas Sapir, a former Finance Minister of Israel, and was first awarded in 2000.
Prize money
The Sapir Prize, based on the British Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
, is the most lucrative literary prize awarded in Israel.
Prize rules
The group of judges for the prize is composed of prominent literary figures, whose names are kept confidential until the prize winner is named.[ Some of these judges are replaced from year to year.
The judges first select five books published during the previous year as final contestants for the prize. These books are selected from a list of books provided by the major publishing houses. After a number of weeks, a winner is chosen from these five books and is publicised during Israel's Hebrew Book Week.
The five finalist authors participate in a round of literary get-togethers with readers throughout Israel with the backing of Israel's state lottery. In 2005, the state lottery ran a competition allowing readers to bet on the winner of the prize; the first 30 people to guess the winner correctly received the five finalist books.
In 2003, author Etgar Keret's book of short stories ''Anihu'' was disqualified from competing for the prize after it was discovered that the regulations required all competing books to run at least 60,000 words. This rule has since been abolished.
In 2006, in response to many petitions, the prize's management decided to open up the competition to works published in the previous five years which had been translated into Hebrew from other languages. All competing authors must be Israeli citizens. The change was intended to allow Israeli authors writing in Russian, Arabic, English, and additional languages to compete. These authors can compete either in the normal prize track, or in a separate track specifically for translated works, from which only one work is selected.
Prizewinners are given funding to have their work translated into Arabic and one other foreign language.][
The prize's awarding ceremony is broadcast every year on television during Israel's Hebrew Book Week.
In 2015 the prize rules were changed, only residents of Israel are eligible.
]
Criticism
The Sapir Prize has been criticized on the grounds that it is given to bestsellers. Some of the country's most important writers refuse to submit their candidacy for it, including Meir Shalev
Meir Shalev (; 29 July 1948 – 11 April 2023) was an Israeli writer and newspaper columnist for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Shalev's books have been translated into 26 languages.
Biography
Shalev was born in Nahalal, Israel. Later he lived ...
, Aharon Appelfeld, A.B. Yehoshua
Avraham Gabriel "Boolie" Yehoshua (; December 9, 1936 – June 14, 2022) was an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. ''The New York Times'' called him the "Israeli William Faulkner, Faulkner". Underlying themes in Yehoshua's work are Jew ...
and Amos Oz.[ Thereafter, it was decided that only candidates resident in Israel would be eligible to submit their works for the prize. Critics of this decision have said that for a language to isolate itself, and to restrict its literature to local concerns, is to stifle it.]
Winners
*2023: Ofra Offer Oren, ''What Happened to Hagar in Eilat?'
*2022: Orit Ilan, ''Sister to the Pleiades'
*2021: Hila Blum, ''How to Love Your Daughter''
*2020: Sami Berdugo, ''Donkey'
*2019: Ilana Bernstein, ''Tomorrow We’ll Go to The Amusement Park''
*2018: Etgar Keret, ''Fly Already'
*2017: Esther Peled, ''Widely Open Underneath'' 1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
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*2009: The prize was annulled this year after it was initially awarded to Alon Hilu for ''House of Dajani''.
See also
Individual recipients of prize
* Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
References
External links
*
* Mati Shemoelof wrote his novel "The Prize" about a diasporic Hebrew prize for fiction in Berlin that challenges the Sapir Prize
An interview with Yakir Englander
on "New book network", 19.07.2021
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Fiction awards
Hebrew literary awards
Israeli literary awards
Jewish literary awards
Awards established in 2000