Hawthornden Prize

The Hawthornden Prize, one of Britain's oldest literary awards, was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. This £15,000 prize is awarded annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the previous calendar year. The prize is for a book in English, not for a translation. Previous winners of the prize are excluded from the shortlist. Unlike other major literary awards, the Hawthornden Prize does not solicit submissions. There have been several gap years without a recipient (1945–57, 1959, 1966, 1971–73, and 1984–87).

The Hawthornden Prize, along with the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, are Britain's oldest literary awards. It offered £100 in 1936, in 1995 was worth £2,000 and by 2017 had increased to £15,000. It was formerly administered by the Hawthornden Trust set up by Warrender, and sponsored by the private trust of Drue Heinz. It is currently administered by Hawthornden Foundation, established by Drue Heinz.