The Bookspot Literatuurprijs (previously ECI Literatuurprijs, AKO Literatuurprijs and Generale Bank Literatuurprijs) is a prize for literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is awarded to authors writing in Dutch 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 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 - Publiek geheim 1988 - Geerten Meijsing - Veranderlijk en wisselvallig 1989 - Brigitte Raskin - Het koekoeksjong 1990 - Louis Ferron - Karelische nachten 1991 - P. F. Thomése - Zuidland 1992 - Margriet de Moor - Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw 1993 - Marcel Möring - Het grote verlangen 1994 - Gerhard Durlacher - Quarantine 1995 - Connie Palmen - De vriendschap 1996 - Frits van Oostrom - Maerlants wereld 1997 - A. F. Th. van der Heijden - Onder het plaveisel het moeras 1998 - Herman Franke - De verbeelding 1999 - Karel Glastra van Loon - De passievrucht 2000 - Arnon Grunberg -Fantoompijn 2001 - Jeroen Brouwers - Geheime kamers 2002 - Allard Schröder - De hydrograaf 2003 - Dik van der Meulen - Multatuli: Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker 2004 - Arnon Grunberg - The Asylum Seeker (De asielzoeker) 2005 - Jan Siebelink - Knielen op een bed violen 2006 - Hans Münstermann - De Bekoring 2007 - A. F. Th. van der Heijden - Het schervengericht 2008 - Doeschka Meijsing - Over de liefde 2009 - Erwin Mortier - Godenslaap 2010 - David Van Reybrouck - Congo, een geschiedenis 2011 - Marente de Moor - De Nederlandse maagd 2012 - Peter Terrin - Post mortem 2013 - Joke van Leeuwen - Feest van het begin 2014 - Stefan Hertmans - Oorlog en terpentijn 2015 - Jeroen Brouwers - Het hout 2016 - Martin Michael Driessen - Rivieren 2017 - Koen Peeters - De mensengenezer 2018 - 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 - Zwarte schuur 2021 - Wessel te Gussinklo - Op weg naar De Hartz 2022 - Anjet Daanje - Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris 2023 - Jan Vantoortelboom - Mauk 2024 - Esther Gerritsen - Gebied 19
References
External links Bookspot Literatuurprijs, official website of the jury prize BookSpot Lezersprijs, portal for readers' voting