The Sapir Prize for Literature of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
is a prestigious
[ annual ]literary award
A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author.
Organizations
Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...
presented for a work of literature in the Hebrew language. The prize is awarded by Mifal HaPayis (Israel's state lottery
A lottery 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 some degree of ...
), and is a part of the organization's cultural initiatives. It bears the name of the late Pinhas Sapir
According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas or Phineas (; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Israelites’ Exodus journey. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with hi ...
, 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 known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
, is the most lucrative literary prize awarded in Israel. Of five shortlisted titles, the winning author receives 150,000 NIS
Nis, Niš, NiS or NIS may refer to:
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* Ness, Lewis ( gd, Nis, links=no), a village in the Outer Hebrides islands
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* Naftna Industrija Srbije, Petroleum Industry of ...
(roughly 39,000 USD), and the four runners-up each receive 40,000 NIS. For the year 2019, a new award will be granted for a debut work. Up to three candidates will receive a prize of 20,000 NIS, with the winner receiving 40,000 NIS.
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
Hebrew Book Week ( he, שבוע הספר העברי) is an annual week-long event in Israel celebrating Hebrew literature.
History
Hebrew Book Week evolved from a one-day event on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv organized by Bracha Peli, foun ...
.
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 ( he, מאיר שלו; born 29 July 1948) is 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 ...
, Aharon Appelfeld
Aharon Appelfeld ( he, אהרן אפלפלד; born Ervin Appelfeld; February 16, 1932 – January 4, 2018) was an Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor.
Biography
Ervin Appelfeld was born in Jadova Commune, Storojineț County, in the Bukovina ...
, A.B. Yehoshua
Avraham Gabriel Yehoshua ( he, אברהם גבריאל (בולי) יהושע; 9 December 1936 – 14 June 2022) was an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. ''The New York Times'' called him the "Israeli Faulkner". Underlying themes in Ye ...
and Amos Oz.
In 2014, for the first time, the award was won by a writer (Reuven Namdar) living outside Israel.[ 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.] However, others have argued that literary funding is in short supply in Israel, and would be best directed at local authors rather than those living more comfortably abroad.
Winners
*2022: Orit Ilan, ''Sister to the Pleiades'
*2021: Hila Blum, ''How to Love Your Daughter''
*2020: Sami Berdugo
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...
, ''Donkey'
*2019: Ilana Bernstein, ''Tomorrow We’ll Go to The Amusement Park''
*2018: Etgar Keret, ''Fly Already'
*2017: Esther Peled, ''Widely Open Underneath''
*2016: Michal Ben-Naftali, ''The Teacher''
*2015: Orly Castel-Bloom
Orly Castel-Bloom ( he, אורלי קסטל-בלום) is an Israeli author.
Biography
Orly Castel-Bloom was born in Northern Tel Aviv in 1960, to a family of French-speaking Egyptian Jews. Until the age of three, she had French nannies and spoke ...
, ''An Egyptian Novel''
*2014: Reuven Namdar
Reuben or Reuven ( he, רְאוּבֵן, Standard ''Rəʾūven'', Tiberian ''Rŭʾūḇēn'') was the first of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob’s oldest son), according to the Book of Genesis. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Re ...
, ''The Ruined House
''The Ruined House'' ( he, הבית אשר נחרב, lit. ''The House that was Destroyed'') is an originally Hebrew language book by Reuven Namdar written and set in New York City. The book was the 2014 winner of the Sapir Prize.Tablet Magazin/ref ...
''
*2013: Noa Yedlin
Noa Yedlin (Hebrew: נעה ידלין, born 23 December 1975) is an Israeli writer, columnist and screenwriter. Her books have been translated to several languages and won awards such as the Sapir Prize (2013) and the Prime Minister's Prize for Heb ...
, בעלת הבית
*2012: Shimon Adaf
Shimon Adaf ( he, שמעון אדף, born 1972) is an Israeli poet and author born in Sderot.
Biography
Shimon Adaf's first book of poetry, ''Icarus' Monologue'', won a prize from the Israeli Ministry of Education. In 1996–2000, Adaf studied ...
, ''Mox Nox''
*2011: Haggai Linik
Haggai (; he, חַגַּי – ''Ḥaggay''; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; la, Aggaeus) was a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the author of t ...
, ''Prompter Needed''
*2010: Yoram Kaniuk, ''1948''
*2009: The prize was annulled this year after it was initially awarded to Alon Hilu for ''House of Dajani''.
*2008: Zvi Yanai
Zvi Yanai (Hebrew: צבי ינאי ; June 9, 1935 – December 16, 2013) was an Israeli civil servant and author.
Biography
Sandro Toth (later Zvi Yanai) was born in Pescara, Italy. His father was a baritone singer from Budapest and his mother w ...
, ''שלך, סנדר''
*2007: Sara Shilo
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* ''Sara'' (2010 film), 2010 Sri Lankan Sinhal ...
, ''The Falafel King is Dead''
*2006: Ron Leshem
Ron Leshem ( he, רון לשם; born December 20, 1976), is an Israeli-American television writer and producer, best known for serving as executive producer on HBO's '' Euphoria'', and for the film '' Beaufort'', which was nominated for the Acade ...
, ''Beaufort Beaufort may refer to:
People and titles
* Beaufort (surname)
* House of Beaufort, English nobility
* Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England
* Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility
Places Polar regions ...
''
*2005: Alona Frankel
Alona Frankel ( he, אלונה פרנקל, 27 June 1937) is a Polish-born Israeli writer and illustrator of many classic children's books as well as recently published poetic memoirs for young adults. She was born in Kraków, Poland, and is a Ho ...
, ''Girl''
*2004: Dan Tsalka
Dan Tsalka ( he, דן צלקה, 1936-June 15, 2005) was an Israeli writer.
Biography
Dan Tsalka was born in 1936 in Warsaw. In World War II his family fled to the Soviet Union, where they lived in Siberia and then Kazakhstan. At the close of the ...
, ''Tsalka's ABC''
*2003: Amir Gutfreund
Amir Gutfreund ( he, אמיר גוטפרוינד) (July 23, 1963 - November 27, 2015) was an Israeli writer and columnist for the ''Maariv'' newspaper.[Gail Hareven
Gail Hareven ( he, גַּיִל הַרְאֶבֶן); born 1959 Jerusalem) is an Israeli author.
Biography
Gail Hareven studied at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Shalom Hartman Institute.
Her work appears in The New Yorker.
She has publis ...]
, ''The Confessions of Noa Weber''
*2001: David Grossman
David Grossman ( he, דויד גרוסמן; born January 25, 1954) is an Israeli author. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
In 2018, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.
Biography
David Grossman was born i ...
, ''Someone to Run With''
*2000: Haim Sabato
Haim Sabato is an Israeli rabbi and author.
Biography
Haim Sabato was born to a family of Aleppan- Syrian descent in Cairo. In the 1950s, his family immigrated to Israel and lived in a "ma'abara" (transit camp) in Kiryat HaYovel, Jerusalem. He ...
, ''Adjusting Sights''
See also
Individual recipients of prize
* Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (Hebrew: איילת גונדר-גושן; born 1982) is an Israeli author.Beckerman, Hannah (March 13, 2016)"Ayelet Gundar-Goshen: 'We Israelis tend to forget that we are a nation of refugees ''The Guardian''.
Life
Ayelet G ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sapir Prize For Literature
Fiction awards
Hebrew literary awards
Israeli literary awards
Jewish literary awards
Israeli awards
Awards established in 2000