Literary award · Japan · since 2005

Kenzaburō Ōe Prize

Award. Established 2005 in Japan.

About Kenzaburō Ōe Prize

The Kenzaburō Ōe Prize (大江健三郎賞) was a Japanese literary award sponsored by Kodansha (講談社) and established in 2006 to commemorate both the 100th anniversary of Kodansha's establishment and 50th anniversary of the writing life of Kenzaburō Ōe (大江健三郎). The award was for Japanese literary novels published in the previous year, with the winning work selected solely by Ōe. The winner received no cash award, but several winning works were translated into other languages, such as English, French and German, for publication. Kenzaburō Ōe had an open conversation with each winner. The final prize was awarded in 2014, and the collected selection commentary and dialogues were reprinted in a single volume published by Kodansha in 2018.

From the Wikipedia article “Ōe Kenzaburō Prize”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2014Kei Iwaki—
2013Yukiko Motoya—
2012Risa Wataya—
2011Tomoyuki Hoshino—
2010Fuminori Nakamura—
2009Reiji Andō—
2008Toshiki Okada—
2007Yū Nagashima—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Kenzaburō Ōe Prize for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data