The announcement of the new Spanish literary prize on February 26 aroused the curiosity of the cultural world for two reasons. One of them is the entity responsible for pulsing this new award, namely the public airport company Aena. Next is the important thing that the ganador will be rewarded with: million euros.
With this title, it is equal to the reward of other recognitions such as Nobel Prize for Literatureequipped with 11 million Swiss crowns — a little over one million euros at the current exchange rate — and Planetwhich also offers a million euros to the new winner (the last one was Veru, a love story Tertuliano Juan del Val) and €200,000 for the finalist (in the case of Aena, it will be four finalist works, each awarded €30,000).
Each of the three giants, yes, retains its nature. The new Hispano-American Narrativa Aena will reward the best published work of the year that has been submitted to the competition. Planeta primarily recognizes the best unpublished manuscript submitted for the Prize. Finally, the Nobel Prize is centered on the author’s trajectory.
It is in all cases impressive stuff that is significantly different from the rewards offered by other prestigious awards.
Looking at the international panorama, the modest economic reward that accompanies the most famous galardoney is surprising, even more so compared to those previously mentioned. The National Book Award is endowed with $10,000while winners in various Pulitzer categories (best fiction among them) receive $15,000.
On the other hand, the International Book Fair of Guadalajara offers the FIL Prize for Literature in Romance, among which the most popular writers are Enrique Vila-Matas (2015), Ida Vitale (2018), Mircea Cartarescu (2022) and the French-Lebanese Amin Maalouf (2025). The money that accompanies the Mexican prize is $150,000.
Following the Latin American context, We meet the Rómulo Gallegos International Novella Prize, accompanied by $100,000 in metal. It has a biennial nature and was originally created to recognize Spanish-American novels (among its laureates were Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes), but since the 1990s it has spread throughout the Spanish territory (Javier Marías was the first darling of this new era).
Although it is in Spanish, the Alfaguara editors are also looking for a certain project in the Latin American sphere with their Premio de Novel, the last winner of which was the Mexican David Toscana, with Blind army. Therefore, the reward is given in dollars, namely 175 thousand.
It’s on this side of the Atlantic Bookerthe most prestigious prize in the UK, it rewards the best English (Commonwealth) novel and the best international novel with £50,000.
Above all, in Italy we encounter the famous Strega prize, which since its inception in 1947 has highlighted the great figures of Italian literature (Alberto Moravia, Primo Levi, Umberto Eco…) and is subsidized by only €5,000. A surprisingly small song considering it’s the most prestigious gallardón in the country.
At the European level, we noted the Jacques Delors European Book Award, which was the last winner of Javier Cercas with The place of God at the end of the worldwhich was embossed with a €10,000 donation.
Inside our queue – although the author recognizes the novel regardless of the place of its processing, always and when it is written in Spanish or in any case in the official languages - we find a wide range of recognition.
For one side, The national prizes awarded by the Ministry of Culture received a subsidy of 30,000 euros in most cases (narrative, poetry, dramatic work…). The exception is the Premio Nacional de las Litras, which recognizes the trajectory of a Spanish author, which is rewarded with 50,000 euros. As for the Cervantes Prize, the most important in Spanish, it rewards the winner with €125,000.
Spanish editorials also offer a wide range of prizes for unpublished manuscripts. I know, for example, the historic Nadal prize (Editorial Destino, €30,000), whose first famous winner was Carmen Laforet and who won David Uclés for one week. On the other hand, Anagrama counts on the Herralde de Novela prize (25,000 euros), whose first galardón should have been compared to Álvaro Pomba, who was asimismo finalist of the edition with another work.
The Azorín Novela prize from the editors of Planeta is subsidized by the amount of EUR 45,000. The Six Barrel sell, on the other hand, counts on the Short Library Award, for which the winner is rewarded with €30,000.
Price Primavera de Novelamanaged by the editorial Espasa (among those ganadores están Juan José Millás or Antonio Soler) stands out with a high salary: €100,000. They appear outside the bowl with the RBA Internacional de Novela Negra, with €125,000 and the Fernando Lara de Novela premium, with an extraordinary mount.
In the European context, we can draw attention to a disturbing case Goncourt Prize. The most prestigious prize in French literature is the holder of a symbolic subsidy of 10 euros, which is, of course, accompanied by the publication of the work, with a corresponding reward that accompanies the fans and something as intangible as “a project guaranteed by the prestige of the prize”.
Ask us for a selection of symbolic rewards, we ask you with Andrej Biely. The ganador from the main gallardon located on Russian territory takes home three prizes at the expense of one: a ruble, a manzan and, of course, a bottle of vodka.
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