This essay analyses the reception of W.G. Sebald during his lifetime based on his track record of literary prizes awarded to him inside and outside Germany. His increasing recognition, both in Germany and in the anglophone world, is reflected in the literary prizes he received. Likewise, the literary prizes reveal significant differences in Sebald’s domestic and foreign reception, which result from the fact that in Germany his aggressive critical essays, attacking major literary figures, resulted in reservations of many juries awarding prizes and other recognitions.

Modern literary prizes date from the Nobel Prize in Literature, first awarded in 1901. In France, the Prix Goncourt followed in 1903 and by mid-century numerous others had been established, many of which garner significant public interest to this day. This chapter considers French book prizes, their progressive commercialization heralded by the development of new media in the early twentieth century, and the question of their reliability as indicators of literary quality and durability. It examines the development of the practice as well as the politics of awarding prizes, the relative success of individual publishers, authors and works, and how this feeds into the wider concerns of literary history. The award of prizes is considered against the shifting political currents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This historical examination evokes well-known names as well as many now largely forgotten.

This chapter engages the history of key literary prizes that have been awarded to black and Asian writers. What is the impact of awards which prize otherness, celebrate diversity, and demand BAME writers to engage a fixed range of topics, arguably in a limited number of forms? While literary awards create visibility, stimulate sales, and direct critical attention to selected writers and texts, the trade-off is the required negotiation of thematic, formal, and identitarian templates confronting potential recipients.