The Bookspot Literatuurprijs (previously ECI Literatuurprijs, AKO Literatuurprijs and Generale Bank Literatuurprijs) is a prize for literature in the
Netherlands
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. It is awarded to authors writing in
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and amounts to 50,000. The ceremony is televised live each year. The prize was conceived in 1986 and inaugurated the following year with the aim to promote literature and increase the public's interest in books.
Name and sponsorship
The name of the prize has not been constant, reflecting the main sponsors. It was first prefixed with ''AKO'' after its sponsor-founder, the Amsterdamsche Kiosk Onderneming, a chain of over 100 bookstores and newsstands in the Netherlands. From 1997 through 1999 it was sponsored by Belgium's Generale Bank and was named accordingly – ''Generale Bank Literatuurprijs''. The bank was absorbed and the sponsorship presumably assumed by
Fortis Bank
BNP Paribas Fortis is an international bank based in Belgium and is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. It was formerly, together with Fortis Bank Nederland, the banking arm of the financial institution Fortis. After the ultimately unsuccessful ABN-AMR ...
in 1999, but the financing of the prize reverted to AKO before the 2000 award, so the name ''Fortis Literatuurprijs'' was never formally implemented. Beginning in 2015, AKO dropped sponsorship and the prize was sponsored by ECI, a book club and webshop. ECI changed its name in March 2018 to Bookspot, so the literary award had to change as well.
Selection procedure
The Bookspot Literatuurprijs is awarded by a five-member jury of Dutch and Belgian book critics, some of whom have served on it repeatedly. The sixth person, the head of the jury, changes every year and is usually a public figure, often a politician.
The nominations follow the system of a longlist, ''tiplijst'', of 25 preliminary nominees and a shortlist, ''toplijst'', of six finalists. In order to be considered for a given year, a book needs to be published before the first of July of the year in which the prize is to be awarded and after 30 June of the preceding year. The winner is usually announced later in the fall.
The Bookspot award comprehends the categories fiction and non-fiction. Additionally to the jury steered Bookspot Literatuurprijs (50.000 Euro) there is a separate BookSpot Lezersprijs which enables the readers' vote and grants 10.000 Euro to the winner. The process is well-elaborated: thirty books are selected by the general jury, two longlists of 15 books in fiction and non-fiction categories, published online annually any 4 September. Any reader can vote for his favorite books. The three most chosen books form the ''BookSpot Lezersprijs Top 3''. A separate BookSpot Lezersjury of fifty readers read those three books and elect the final Lezersprijs winner.
Winners
* 1987 -
J. Bernlef
Hendrik Jan Marsman (14 January 1937 – 29 October 2012), better known by his pen name, J. Bernlef, was a Dutch writer, poet, novelist and translator, much of whose work centres on mental perception of reality and its expression. He won numerous ...
- ''Publiek geheim''
* 1988 -
Geerten Meijsing
Geerten Jan Maria Meijsing (born 9 August 1950) is a Dutch writer, translator and novelist. He won the AKO Literatuurprijs in 1988 for his novel ''Veranderlijk en wisselvallig (Fickle and Changeable)'', and in 1999 the Golden Owl, Gouden Uil Lit ...
Louis Ferron
Louis Ferron (born Karl Heinz Beckering; 4 February 1942 – 26 August 2005) was a Dutch novelist and poet.
Biography
Louis Ferron was born in Leiden out of an adulterous relationship between a married German soldier and a waitress from Haarlem ...
- ''Karelische nachten''
* 1991 - P. F. Thomése - ''Zuidland''
* 1992 -
Margriet de Moor
Margaretha Maria Antonetta 'Margriet' de Moor ('' née'' Neefjes; born 1941) is a Dutch pianist and writer of novels and essays. She won the AKO Literatuurprijs for her novel ''Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw'' (1991).
Life and career
Margaretha ...
- ''Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw''
* 1993 -
Marcel Möring
Marcel Möring (born 5 September 1957, in Enschede) is a Dutch writer. He received the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 2007 for his novel ''Dis'', translated into English under the title ''In A Dark Wood''.
He received the Anna Blaman Prijs in 199 ...
- ''Het grote verlangen''
* 1994 - Gerhard Durlacher - ''Quarantine''
* 1995 -
Connie Palmen
Aldegonda Petronella Huberta Maria "Connie" Palmen (born 25 November 1955) is a Dutch author.
Palmen debuted with the novel ''De wetten'' (1990), published in the United States as ''The Laws'' (1993), translated by Richard Huijing. ''The Laws'' ...
- ''De vriendschap''
* 1996 -
Frits van Oostrom
Frits van Oostrom (born 15 May 1953 in Utrecht, Netherlands) is University Professor for the Humanities at Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting Professor at Harvard for the Erasmus Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow ...
- ''Maerlants wereld''
* 1997 -
A. F. Th. van der Heijden
Adrianus Franciscus Theodorus van der Heijden (born 15 October 1951) is a Dutch writer.
Van der Heijden was born in Geldrop, and studied psychology and philosophy in Nijmegen. After moving to Amsterdam he turned to writing. His first two books a ...
- ''Onder het plaveisel het moeras''
* 1998 - Herman Franke - ''De verbeelding''
* 1999 - Karel Glastra van Loon - ''De passievrucht''
* 2000 -
Arnon Grunberg
Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg (; born 22 February 1971) is a Dutch writer of novels, essays, and columns, as well as a journalist. He published some of his work under the heteronym Marek van der Jagt. He lives in New York. His work has been transla ...
-''Fantoompijn''
* 2001 -
Jeroen Brouwers
Jeroen Godfried Marie Brouwers (30 April 1940 – 11 May 2022) was a Dutch writer.
From 1964 to 1976 Brouwers worked as an editor at Manteau publishers in Brussels. In 1964 he made his literary debut with ''Het mes op de keel'' (''The Knife ...
- ''Geheime kamers''
* 2002 - Allard Schröder - ''De hydrograaf''
* 2003 - Dik van der Meulen - ''Multatuli: Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker''
* 2004 -
Arnon Grunberg
Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg (; born 22 February 1971) is a Dutch writer of novels, essays, and columns, as well as a journalist. He published some of his work under the heteronym Marek van der Jagt. He lives in New York. His work has been transla ...
Jan Siebelink
Jan Geurt Siebelink (born 13 February 1938 in Velp, Gelderland) is a Dutch author. In 2005, he wrote the novel ''Knielen op een bed violen'' (literally ', translated into English as ''In my father's garden'') that sold over 700,000 copies. In 19 ...
- ''Knielen op een bed violen''
* 2006 - Hans Münstermann - ''De Bekoring''
* 2007 -
A. F. Th. van der Heijden
Adrianus Franciscus Theodorus van der Heijden (born 15 October 1951) is a Dutch writer.
Van der Heijden was born in Geldrop, and studied psychology and philosophy in Nijmegen. After moving to Amsterdam he turned to writing. His first two books a ...
Erwin Mortier
Erwin Mortier (born 28 November 1965) is a Dutch-language Belgian author. Spending his youth in Hansbeke, he later moved to nearby Ghent, where he became city poet (2005–2006).
He wrote as a columnist for newspapers like ''De Morgen'' and pub ...
- ''Godenslaap''
* 2010 -
David Van Reybrouck
David Grégoire Van Reybrouck (born 11 September 1971, in Bruges) is a Belgian cultural historian, archaeologist and author. He writes historical fiction, literary non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and academic texts. He has received several Du ...
Marente de Moor
Marente de Moor (; born 1972) is a Dutch novelist and columnist. She published four novels and two collections of short stories. She won the AKO Literatuurprijs (2011) and the European Union Prize for Literature (2014) for her novel ''De Nederl ...
- ''De Nederlandse maagd''
* 2012 -
Peter Terrin
Peter Terrin (born 3 October 1968) is a Belgian novelist, and a winner of the European Union Prize for Literature. He is the author of several novels and two collections of short stories.
Biography
Terrin's first novel, ''Kras'' ("Scratch") was pu ...
Jeroen Brouwers
Jeroen Godfried Marie Brouwers (30 April 1940 – 11 May 2022) was a Dutch writer.
From 1964 to 1976 Brouwers worked as an editor at Manteau publishers in Brussels. In 1964 he made his literary debut with ''Het mes op de keel'' (''The Knife ...
Koen Peeters
Koen Peeters (Turnhout, 9 March 1959) is a Belgian writer. He was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize for his book the ''Great European Novel'' which has since been translated into multiple languages. He received the Ferdinand Bordewijk P ...
- ''De mensengenezer''
* 2018 -
Tommy Wieringa
Tommy Wieringa (born 20 May 1967) is a Dutch writer.Tommy Wieringa
- ''De heilige Rita''
* 2019 - Wessel te Gussinklo - ''De hoogstapelaar'' (fiction); Sjeng Scheijen - ''De avant-gardisten. De Russische Revolutie in de kunst, 1917-1935'' (non-fiction)
* 2020 -
Oek de Jong
Oebele Klaas Anne (Oek) de Jong (born 4 October 1952 in Breda) is a Dutch novelist.
He debuted in 1976 with ''De hemelvaart van Massimo'', a collection of short stories for which he received the Reina Prinsen Geerligsprijs.
In 1980 he won the ...