Literary award · Ireland · since 2003

Ondaatje Prize

Annual literary award from the Royal Society of Literature. Established 2003 in Ireland.

About Ondaatje Prize

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The prize bears the name of its benefactor Sir Christopher Ondaatje. The prize incorporates the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, which was presented up to 2002 for regional fiction.

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

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2022Lea Ypi—
2020A Portable Paradise—
2005Rory Stewart—

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

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Ondaatje 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