Recommended Book Selection
The Award-winning Children's Books campaign (1991) is launched by the Taipei Public Library, with support from the Society of Children's Literature, R.O.C. and the former Min Sheng Bao, formerly one of the major newspapers in Taiwan. The campaign is launched with the goal of encouraging the writing and publishing of quality reading materials for children and the youth, and providing novel information in regard to the publication of book materials in the category. Also is to establish a system for evaluating and selecting quality reading materials for children, and to create for the youth an atmosphere full of the scent of books.
The Award-winning Books selection here is the product of careful evaluation and selection of distinguished book materials by the China Times, one of the four major newspapers in Taiwan. Among a wide selection of quality book materials being published in Taiwan every year, ten books are selected by the China times for the each of the award categories, namely "Works in Chinese," "Translated Works," "Books for a Beautiful Livelihood," "Recommended Books for the Youth," and "Recommended Books for Children."
The Golden Book Awards are presented by the Chinese Management Association to authors of notable works since 1995. It is administered under the supervision of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. to promote cooperation among authors, translators and publishers to produce outstanding book materials in the field of management science (MS). This is aimed at the upgrading of the levels of domestic business administration by encouraging the absorption of valuable information in the discipline of management through reading activities among the small and medium enterprises, the leading powerhouse of the economy of Taiwan.
The Golden Tripod Awards were established in 1976 under the administration of the Government Information Office, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. to reward distinctive contributors in the field of publishing, with the hope to increase the quality of domestic publications and to promote further development in the publication domain in Taiwan. Also is to transmit an awareness and to create a climate for reading among the general public. In Chinese history and culture, the tripod (ding) is a symbol of authority and tradition in ancient China, which is a recollection to carry on the merits of our masters of the past.
As the outcome of a cathartic inspiration, the Recommended Booklists by Renowned Authors came to presence after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic in 2003, which caused a dreadful disaster in both Taiwan and worldwide. Currently, there are four booklists with topics ranging from the more lighthearted reading materials such as comics, literature, poems and novels, to the more practical and constructive subjects such as health and hygiene, psychological self-help, medical knowledge, religion and spirituality.
The Big Read is a survey carried out by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2003, with the aim to find the "Nation's Best-loved Book" by way of viewer voting in the United Kingdom, which was one of the biggest events in regard to reading in the year, and praised for raising the public awareness of reading. Three rounds of voting resulted in a Top 100 list, a Top 21 list, and a Top Winner Book.
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Booker Prize, is one of the world's most respected literary prizes. It is awarded each year for the best original full-length novel written in the English language, by a national of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations (including South Africa), and the Republic of Ireland.
The Pulitzer Prize is an award administered by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City, and is regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. Prizes are awarded annually in 21 categories. In twenty of these categories, each winner receives a certificate and a cash reward of US$ 10,000 for the winner, and a gold medal for the winner in the separate category of public service in journalism.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is presumptively the most renowned award in world literature. Regardless of nationality, it is awarded annually to an author who has produced "the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency," in the words of Alfred Nobel, its founder. The Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden announces the name of the chosen laureate on a Thursday in early October each year.
The National Book Awards is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States, established in 1950. The awards is to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America, and is presented yearly to American authors for literature published in the previous year, or for lifetime achievements in "distinguished contribution to American letters," in which the winner receives a medal. Award categories are fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature.
The Costa Awards are among the most esteemed literary awards in the United Kingdom, launched in 1971 by the Whitbread hospitality company, and renamed in 2006. The awards are delivered for high literary achievement and for enjoyable works that seek to reach the widest audience possible. Award categories are as follows: Best novel, best first novel, children's literature, poetry, and biography.
Established by Kikuchi Kan, founder of the Japan Writer's Association and the renowned monthly magazine Bungei Shunju, the Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes are the most prestigious literary awards in Japan. The Akutagawa Prize is established in 1935 to commemorate Akutagawa Ryunosuke, the "Father of the Japanese Short Story." It is awarded semiannually to the best story of a purely literary nature, or by a new author. The Naoki Prize is established in the same year to commemorate the critically acclaimed popular fiction writer Naoki Sanjugo, with the aim to recognize the best popular literature written by any young author.
The Aventis Prizes for Science Books were established in 1988 by the Royal Academy, the national academy of science in the United Kingdom. The prizes are awarded annually to the best general science writing and best science writing for children for the previous year, sponsored by the Aventis Foundation. It is regarded as the Booker Prize of science writing, in that it is generally considered as the most distinguished award in scientific writing.
The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the most prominent literary prizes in the United Kingdom. It is awarded yearly for the best original full-length novel by a female author of any nationality, written in English, and published in the UK in the previous year. It is established with the hope to praise the works of female writers that have long deserved yet more recognition and feedback from the reading general public, among the major literary prizes of the world.
The Phoenix Award was established in 1985 by the Touchstones Committee of the Children's Literature Association, which is a group of teachers, scholars, librarians, editors, writers and illustrators engaged in the enthusiastic study of children's literature. It is presented yearly to a book originally published in English, which did not receive a major award at the time of publication twenty years previously. The phoenix is a symbol of rising from obscurity, as legend has it that the mythical bird rises from its ashes.
The Carnegie Medal in Literature is regarded as one of the highest honors among all prizes in children's literature. It was established in honor of the Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in the United Kingdom in 1936, and is awarded to outstanding books for children and young adults and should first have been published in English in the prior year. The awarding committee consists of member librarians from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
The Prix Goncourt (the Goncourt Prize) is the most prestigious prize in French literature, awarded to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year." In 1903, Edmond de Goncourt, a successful author and publisher, established the award to commemorate the death of his brother and collaborator, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt. He bequeathed his entire state for the foundation of the Academie Goncourt, which has awarded the prize every December since 1903.
The West Australian Young Reader's Book Award (WAYRBA) is a readers' choice award pioneering a new concept in Australia, which allows children the major say in prize-winning literature. The purpose represents a positive endeavor to generate enthusiasm for pleasurable reading, to enrich the reading experiences of children, and to develop their powers of differentiation in comparing quality literature.
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award is presented yearly for the finest books and reviews published in English, in which the main awards fall into six categories: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir/autobiography, biography, and criticism. The NBCC is an American non-profit organization of approximately seven hundred active book reviewers, founded in 1974. The variety of interests and expertise of the 24 board members of its yearly selection committee allows for a greater assortment of titles to be considered and made known to the public.
The Kawabata Yasunari Prize for Literature was established in 1973 by the Kawabata Yasunari Memorial Association (Kawabata Yasunari Kinenkai) to honor Japan's first Nobel Prize-winning novelist. The Nobel Prize award money was used to finance the Kawabata Prize, which is presented annually to the year's "most accomplished" work of short fiction. The numbering of the award was restarted in 2000 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kawabata's birth. The winner receives a certificate, a commemorative gift, and a cash award of 1 million Japanese yen.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is the world's largest children's and youth literature award. It was instituted by the Government of Sweden in 2002 to honor the Swedish author of children's literature and to foster the further development of children's literature worldwide, as her works have been translated into 85 languages and published in more than 100 countries. The prize is awarded yearly at an amount of approximately€550,000, or US$ 700,000.
The Kiriyama Prize is an international literary award recognizing books that encourage mutual understanding of and among the culturally diverse peoples and regions of the Pacific Rim and South Asia. It was established in 1996 by Kiriyama Seiyuu, an internationally renowned Tantric Buddhist practitioner, scholar and founder of the Agon Sect in Japan, after having witnessed the damage done to the aforementioned Pacific regions in World War II. Nominated works are written in or translated into English, and are divided into the fiction and nonfiction categories.
The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award is named after Ernest Hemingway, the author of the Nobel-winning novella, The Old Man and the Sea. It is funded by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, which was founded by Mary Hemingway in 1976 to honor the memory of her husband and to recognize exceptional first books of fiction. It is awarded annually to a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. It is affiliated with the writers' organization, International PEN.
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a joint initiative of the Municipal Government of Dublin, Ireland and the U.S. productivity improvement company IMPAC, is the largest and most international prize of its kind for a single work of fiction published in English. It is open to novels written in any language and by authors of any nationality, provided the work has been published in English or English translation. The award is administered by the Dublin City Libraries that receive nominations from public libraries from major cities across the world.
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, first given in 1981, is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction of the year. The foundation is the outcome of William Faulkner's benevolence in contributing his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings, "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers." It is affiliated with the writers' organization, International PEN.
The Governor General's Literary Awards are one of the most prestigious prizes in Canada. It was created in 1937 by John Buchan, the Scottish author of the adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps, who later served as First Baron Tweedsmuir, the 15th Governor General of Canada. It is awarded annually in both French and English in the following categories: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, text in children's literature, illustration in children's literature, and translation.
The Montana New Zealand Book Awards are awarded annually to the literary works of citizens of New Zealand, created in 1996 by merging the two previously most prominent literary awards in New Zealand, namely the Montana Book Awards and the New Zealand Book Awards. Awarded works include fiction, poetry and nonfiction, in addition to the works selected by a readership-wide vote, or written by first-time authors.
El Premio Miguel de Cervantes (the Miguel de Cervantes Prize) is awarded yearly since 1975 to honor the lifetime achievement of an exceptional writer in the Spanish language. It is considered as most prestigious in that it is often regarded as the Nobel Prize in Literature in the Spanish language. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. The first receiver of the award is Jorge Guillen y Alvarez, the famed Spanish poet working with avant-garde forms of poetry.
The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were first presented by The Boston Globe and Horn Book Magazine in 1967. The awards are among the most prestigious honors in the United States in the field of children's and young adult literature. Awards are given in the following categories: Picture books, fiction and poetry, and nonfiction. In addition, two Honor Books are also selected by the committee panel in each category. Awarded works must be published in the United States, although they may be written or illustrated by citizens of any country.
The Booktrust Early Years Awards (formerly the Sainsbury's Baby Book Award, established in 1999) were set up in 2003 to celebrate, publicize and reward the exciting range of books being published today for babies, toddlers and pre-school children. The administration of the prize is supported by the national Bookstart program and The Unwin Charitable Trust in the United Kingdom, along with enthusiastic writers, publishers, teaches, parents and libraries.
![Taiwan.gov.tw [ open a new window]](/images/egov.png)
