Princess of Asturias Awards
ぷりんせさ・で・あすとぅりあすしょう
An international award conferred annually by Spain's Princess of Asturias Foundation. Winners are selected in multiple categories including literature, and receive prize money, sculptures, and more.
- Established
- 1980
- Organizer
- Princess of Asturias Foundation (Fundación Princesa de Asturias)
- Category
- Research, Translation, and Scholarship
- Selection Method
- Recommendation
- Target
- Professional
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Status
- Active
Description
Princess of Asturias Awards (formerly: Prince of Asturias Awards) is a series of annual international awards presented by the Princess of Asturias Foundation (formerly Prince of Asturias Foundation) to individuals and organizations for outstanding achievements in fields such as science, humanities, and public affairs. The foundation was established in 1980, with the first awards in 1981. The ceremony is typically held every October in Oviedo (Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo), where attending winners receive a diploma, a sculpture by Joan Miró, a foundation emblem badge, and €50,000 prize money per category (divided if multiple winners).
Prize
- Main Prize
- €50,000 to each category's winner(s) (divided if multiple), diploma, sculpture by Joan Miró, foundation emblem pin, etc.
- Cash Prize
- 50,000 EUR
- Diploma
- Sculpture by Joan Miró
- Pin with Foundation emblem
- If the winner is absent, they may not receive the sculpture or financial benefits
Selection
Selection Process
| Stage | Judges | Pass Rate | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nomination | Recommendations from experts and institutions designated by the Princess of Asturias Foundation | — | Candidate information is managed through the foundation's internal procedures and official announcements |
| Preliminary screening (document and achievement review) | Review of CVs and achievements by the foundation's committees | — | Results of the preliminary selection are compiled internally, and candidates advancing to the next stage are selected |
| Final deliberation (by the judging committee) | Judging committee (experts and scholars appointed by the foundation) | — | Winners in each category are determined by the judging committee's deliberation |
| Award ceremony (official announcement and presentation) | Foundation and organizers (formally announced at the ceremony) | — | Official winner announcement is made at the award ceremony (usually October). Also published on the official website and press releases |
Criteria
- Magnitude and sustainability of academic and cultural contributions
- International influence and universality
- Outstanding achievements and innovation in the field
- Contributions to humanity's cultural heritage and social welfare
Application Tips
Dos
- 分野で顕著な業績と国際的な影響を示す出版・活動を整備する
- 所属機関や学会を通じた推薦を得られるようにネットワークを構築する
- 授賞式への出席が可能であることを考慮する（不在だと彫刻や賞金を受け取れない場合がある）
- 業績の客観的証拠（受賞歴、引用数、実務的成果等）を明確に示す
Don''ts
- 授賞式への欠席を前提にする（不在時に賞品や賞金が支払われない規定がある）
- 単に話題性だけを狙った短期的な活動に頼る
- 推薦・ノミネーションの手続きを無視して自己申請のように振る舞う（多くは推薦ベース）
From Judges
- 選考ではその業績がもたらす“普遍的”な意義と持続性が重視される
- 国際性、文化的対話への貢献、分野の発展につながる創造性や革新性が評価される
- 推薦者や所属機関からの信頼できる裏付けが結果に影響する
Related Awards
- Miguel de Cervantes Prize (Premio Miguel de Cervantes)
- Nobel Prize in Literature
- Other international and domestic literary awards (e.g., major national literary awards, cultural awards)
Official Resources
https://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/Past Winners
The 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognizes Eduardo Mendoza's body of work as a novelist. Set largely in Barcelona, his fiction mixes elements of Gothic fiction, science fiction, and crime writing with humor, satire, and parody to explore the contradictions of city life and society. A sequence of major novels beginning with The Truth About the Savolta Case forms the core of a career that has now spanned half a century.
From Barcelona, he has kept returning to the city and its contradictions through humor and satire.
Through tightly controlled, symbolic poetry, Ana Blandiana explores memory, freedom, history, and the ethical weight of political experience. Her work earned international recognition for its sustained poetic force.
Through representative works such as Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and 1Q84, Haruki Murakami has used fantastical techniques to explore loneliness, loss, identity, and the texture of modern life. His writing is marked by music and attention to everyday detail.
Anne Carson's award recognizes not a single book but the total body of her work in poetry, translation, and essays grounded in classical scholarship. Her achievement lies in bringing Greco-Latin antiquity into contemporary poetic thought and renewing intellect and feeling at the same time.
The entire body of work, in poetry and translation, was recognized for drawing antiquity into the present.
Siri Hustvedt's award recognized an interdisciplinary body of work rather than a single book. Her fiction and essays move across feminism, psychology, neuroscience, memory, embodiment, and the institutions of art.
Moving between fiction and essay, her work deepens questions of self and body.
The award recognizes the mystery novels of French writer Fred Vargas, praising the originality of her plots, the irony of her characterizations, and the depth of her cultural insight. It honors the writer’s body of work rather than a single standalone book.
A recognition of a writer who has refreshed contemporary crime fiction through originality and cultural insight.
Zagajewski wrote lyric poetry around memory, exile, and the experience of time, linking personal recollection with the European literary tradition. The award points to his body of work rather than a single book.
Poetry that turns memory and exile into quiet lyric thought.
This is a career award honoring Richard Ford’s contribution to modern American fiction rather than a single book. His restrained prose and precise character work are recognized as a major achievement in American literature.
A prize honoring Richard Ford’s body of work rather than one specific book.
An award citation for a body of work rather than one book.
An award citation for a body of work rather than one book.
John Banville’s body of work was recognized for its lyrical intelligence, formal precision, and the dark crime fiction he writes as Benjamin Black.
The award centers on a novelist’s accumulated work rather than a single title.
A sociological study of gender relations and custom in Muslim societies, using history and lived practice to examine women's place in social change.
A sociological study of gender relations and custom in Muslim societies, using history and lived practice to examine women's place in social change.
A classic essay collection on photographs and visual culture, questioning image consumption, truth, and memory.
A classic essay collection on photographs and visual culture, questioning image consumption, truth, and memory.
The 2002 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Arthur Miller's overall career as a playwright.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 2001 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Doris May Lessing's overall career as a writer.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 2000 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Augusto Monterroso's overall career as a short story writer.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
A prize record honoring Günter Grass’s lifetime literary and civic achievements.
A record of lifetime achievement rather than a standalone book.
The 1998 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Francisco Ayala García-Duarte's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
This is a career honor rather than a prize for a single book. It recognizes Álvaro Mutis’s full body of work, including the literary world built around Maqroll.
A prize honoring a poet-novelist’s entire body of work.
This is a career honor rather than a prize for a single book. It recognizes Francisco Umbral’s distinctive literary voice across journalism, essays, and fiction.
A prize honoring a literary career rather than one book.
A lifetime-achievement recognition for the Spanish poet and critic Carlos Bousoño. It is not a standalone book title; his literary career as a whole is being honored.
An honor for a writer who left a major mark on both poetry and criticism.
The 1994 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Carlos Fuentes's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1993 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Claudio Rodríguez's overall career as a poet.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1992 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Francisco Nieva's overall career as a playwright.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1991 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Giannina Braschi's overall career as a writer.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1990 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Arturo Uslar Pietri's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1989 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Ricardo Gullón Fernández's overall career as a writer.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1988 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Carmen Martín Gaite's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1988 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized José Ángel Valente's overall career as a poet.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1987 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Camilo José Cela's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1986 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Mario Vargas Llosa's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1986 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Rafael Lapesa's overall career as a philologist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
A lifetime-achievement award honoring the body of work of poet Ángel González rather than a single book title.
The honor recognizes the full career of the poet, not a single volume.
Recognized for a body of poetry that shaped new poetic tendencies through a distinct aesthetic vision. Its defining traits are a strong sense of language and formal exploration, leaving a lasting mark on the literary field.
The honor recognizes the poet’s achievement as a whole rather than a single work.
This Prince of Asturias Awards entry for Juan Rulfo records a lifetime achievement honor rather than a standalone book.
The entry honors a writer's overall body of work rather than a book.
The 1982 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Miguel Delibes's overall career as a novelist.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1982 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized Gonzalo Torrente Ballester's overall career as a writer.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.
The 1981 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature recognized José Hierro del Real's overall career as a poet.
The award recognizes a writer's overall body of work rather than a single book.