Franz Kafka Prize
ふらんつ・かふかしょう
An international literary award co-sponsored by the Franz Kafka Society and the city of Prague. Established in 2001 and awarded annually until 2021.
- Established
- 2001
- Organizer
- Franz Kafka Society (Franz Kafka Association), co-sponsored by: City of Prague
- Category
- Literature and General Literary Arts
- Selection Method
- Recommendation
- Target
- Professional
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Announcement Period
- around October
- Status
- Active
Description
The Franz Kafka Prize was an international literary award named after Franz Kafka, co-sponsored by the Franz Kafka Society of Prague and the city of Prague. Established in 2001 and active until 2021, the annual award ceremony was held at the Old Town Hall in Prague. Recipients received 10,000 USD, a diploma, and a bronze statuette. The prize gained prestige when two winners, Elfriede Jelinek (2004) and Harold Pinter (2005), went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year. The final recipient was Ivan Vyskocil in 2021.
Prize
- Main Prize
- US$10,000, diploma, bronze statue (presented at the award ceremony)
- Cash Prize
- 10,000 USD
- Diploma
- Bronze statue
- Recognition at the award ceremony (Old Town Hall, Prague)
Selection
Selection Process
| Stage | Judges | Pass Rate | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nomination | — | — | |
| Review (selection by selection committee) | Franz Kafka Society selection committee | — | — |
| Awarding and announcement | — | The winner is announced at the award ceremony held at the Old Town Hall in Prague. |
Criteria
- the artwork's "humanistic character and contribution to cultural, national, language [sic] and religious tolerance, its existential, timeless character, its generally human validity and its ability to hand over [sic] a testimony about our times."
Related Awards
- Nobel Prize in Literature
- Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
- List of literary awards
- List of Czech literary awards
Official Resources
https://www.franzkafka-soc.cz/Past Winners
This entry treats Ivan Vyskočil's lifetime achievement rather than a single standalone book. His experimental theatre, writing, and teaching are at the center of the recognition, especially the dialogical acting work that shaped generations of Czech performers.
The prize honors a body of work that cannot be reduced to a single book.
Set against the Prague Spring and its aftermath, the novel follows Tomas, Tereza, Sabina, and Franz as their relationships expose the tensions between love and freedom, chance and responsibility. Through the paradox of lightness and weight, Kundera probes what it means to live a life that happens only once.
What do we carry, and what do we let go of, in a life lived only once?
A linked set of portraits of ordinary lives in provincial France, using memory and language to search for the meaning of writing itself.
The 2018 Franz Kafka Prize was awarded to Czech poet and translator Ivan Wernisch. It recognized not one book but the international significance of his poetry as a whole, including linguistic play, fantastic imagery, and translation.
An international prize for a poet who broadened modern Czech poetry through fantasy and linguistic play.
未来社会で女性の身体が管理されるディストピアを描き、権力と抑圧、個人の自由を鋭く問う長編。象徴的な世界観と言語による抑圧の描写で国際的な反響を呼んだ作品である。
未来社会で女性の身体が管理されるディストピアを描き、権力と抑圧、個人の自由を鋭く問う長編。
A journey book that reads the history and culture of Central Europe while following the Danube. It is a substantial work that moves between essay and travel writing.
It follows the current of the river to trace Europe’s memory.
A picaresque novel that overlaps the growth of Barcelona with one man’s rise. The shape of urban expansion and desire is rendered in a lively, satirical style.
It tells the transformation of a city as a story of ambition.
A quiet, elegant novel of memory, loss, and family, in which the narrator revisits a seaside summer from childhood and reflects on the boundaries of life and death.
A restrained novel about memory and loss.
The Franz Kafka Prize honors Peter Handke’s long and varied literary career, rather than a single book, and recognizes the breadth of his influence.
A prize for a body of work rather than a single title.
An award for lifetime achievement rather than for a single title.
It honors an author’s whole body of work rather than one specific book.
An award for lifetime achievement rather than for a single title.
It honors an author’s whole body of work rather than one specific book.
An award for lifetime achievement rather than for a single title.
It honors an author’s whole body of work rather than one specific book.
An award for lifetime achievement rather than for a single title.
It honors an author’s whole body of work rather than one specific book.
An award for lifetime achievement rather than for a single title.
It honors an author’s whole body of work rather than one specific book.
The 2002 Franz Kafka Prize honored Ivan Klíma’s entire literary career. The award highlighted a writer who, despite censorship and repression, remained a central voice in postwar Czech literature and consistently explored dignity and moral responsibility.
A prize celebrating Ivan Klíma’s work across censorship, repression, and literary renewal.
The inaugural Franz Kafka Prize honored Philip Roth’s lifetime achievement rather than a single title. It recognized a career defined by sharp observation, self-scrutiny, and a sustained engagement with Jewish-American life.
Not a single-book prize, but an acknowledgment of Philip Roth’s whole career.