Reading List · Literary Prizes
The Calendar: Every Date, and Which One to Follow
Eight prizes, one calendar. Between 22 September and 18 November there are ten separate announcements, the Booker and the National Book Award land nine days apart, and on 6 October two prizes report on the same morning. After that nothing happens until February. Below is every date from now to next summer, what each prize is actually for, and which one to follow if you are only going to follow one.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 prizes, 19 dates · September 2026 to June 2027 · Updated 22 September 2026
In this issue · and the next date for each
Quick answer
The Booker shortlist was announced on 22 September 2026. Next come the Giller shortlist on 5 October, the Nobel on 8 October, and four winners between 3 and 18 November. The Nobel pays the most by a distance and the Goncourt pays ten euros. Which of the eight is worth your attention depends entirely on what you read, and that is the part of this page that is not a calendar.
How this page chooses
Every date below was taken from the prize’s own site or its own announcement, not from a round-up, and checked on 15 September 2026. Where a prize has not published a date I have said so rather than guessing: the Pulitzer announces only that its winners come “during the spring”, so that is what this page says.
The calendar keeps to eight prizes on purpose. There are dozens more, and adding them all would make this a longer list and a worse one: a calendar you cannot hold in your head is a spreadsheet. Eight other prizes do have a full page on this site, from the Baillie Gifford to the Walter Scott, and they are listed further down, each with its next date.
Every date from here to next summer
Nineteen dates across eight prizes, grouped by month. The colour of each dot matches the prize further down, so a date and a prize belong together at a glance. Ten of them fall between 22 September and 18 November. 1234567
September 2026
3 dates- 15–17 September 2026National Book AwardFive longlists, ten books each — fifty in all
- 18 September 2026Women’s PrizeEntries close for 2027, both the fiction and the non-fiction prize
- 22 September 2026Booker PrizeShortlist: six of the thirteen, at the Southbank Centre
October 2026
6 dates- 5 October 2026Giller PrizeShortlist: three to five of the fourteen
- 6 October 2026National Book AwardTwenty-five finalists, five per category
- 6 October 2026Prix GoncourtSecond selection, cutting the sixteen down
- 8 October 2026Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe laureate, 1pm Central European Time at the earliest
- 15 October 2026Pulitzer PrizeEntry deadline for books — the last date anything can go in
- 27 October 2026Prix GoncourtThe four finalists
November 2026
4 dates- 3 November 2026Prix GoncourtThe winner, over lunch at Drouant in Paris
- 9 November 2026Booker PrizeThe winner, at Old Billingsgate in London
- 16 November 2026Giller PrizeThe winner, in Toronto, broadcast by CBC
- 18 November 2026National Book AwardFive winners, one per category
December 2026
1 date- 10 December 2026Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe ceremony in Stockholm, on the anniversary of Nobel’s death
February 2027
1 date- 10 February 2027Women’s Prize for Non-FictionLonglist of sixteen — always a month before the fiction one
March 2027
1 date- 10 March 2027Women’s Prize for FictionLonglist of sixteen
April 2027
2 dates- 7 April 2027Women’s Prize for Non-FictionShortlist of six
- 28 April 2027Women’s Prize for FictionShortlist of six
June 2027
1 date- 17 June 2027Women’s PrizeBoth winners, at Bedford Square Gardens in London
Why the calendar stops in DecemberThe gap from 10 December to 10 February is not laziness. Almost every prize on this list aims its winner at the weeks before Christmas, which is when books are actually bought. The two Women’s Prizes are the exception, and they have June to themselves.
The eight, and what each one is actually for
In order of how much noise they make in English. Every one of them is entered by publishers rather than authors, which is worth remembering before you wonder why a book you loved never appeared.
The Booker Prize
One of this year’s thirteen longlisted novels is about an out-of-work actor paid to sit inside a black leather bag.8
Follow it ifyou read in English and want one book a year that everyone will be talking about
Current winnerFlesh by David Szalay, 2025
Read the full pageThe Booker PrizeAll thirteen longlisted novels for 2026, what each one asks of you, and every winner since 2015. Every winner since 1980 →The Nobel Prize in Literature
Borges was nominated forty-two times and never won. In 1967 the committee’s chairman called his art too artificial, and argued against him.9
Follow it ifyou want the one prize that sends you somewhere you would never have gone
Current winnerSatantango by László Krasznahorkai, 2025
Read the full pageThe Nobel Prize in LiteratureEight laureates with one book each to start on, and seven writers who never won.The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer will not say when it announces. Its own guidance to publishers gives no date at all, only “during the spring”.7
Follow it ifyou want the American canon as America sees it
Current winnerAngel Down by Daniel Kraus, 2026
Read the full pageThe Pulitzer Prize for FictionEvery winner since 1980, and which of them is still worth reading.The National Book Award
1,835 books were entered for the 2025 National Book Awards. Fifty were longlisted, twenty-five became finalists, and five won.10
Follow it ifyou want five prizes for the price of one, and the translated category in particular
Current winnerThe True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine, 2025
Read the full pageThe National Book AwardEvery fiction winner since 1950, ten of them in depth, and the 2025 winners in all five categories.The Women’s Prize for Fiction
The 1991 Booker shortlist had six books and not one by a woman — in a year when women wrote six novels in ten.11
Follow it ifyou noticed how often the other lists are short of women, which is why it exists
Current winnerThe Correspondent by Virginia Evans, 2026
Read the full pageThe Women’s Prize for FictionAll thirty-one winners since 1996, and the ten that are still read.The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction
Before the prize existed, somebody counted: 26.5 per cent of the non-fiction reviews in national newspapers went to books by women.12
Follow it ifyou read more non-fiction than fiction and are tired of the same five names
Current winnerThe Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet, 2026
Read the full pageThe Women’s Prize for Non-FictionAll three winners and eighteen shortlisted books, 2024 to 2026.The Giller Prize
In September 2024 the prize took its sponsor’s name out of its own title — while that sponsor was still paying for it.13
Follow it ifyou want next year’s Booker shortlist a year early, which it keeps being
Current winnerPick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa, 2025
Read the full pageThe Giller PrizeEleven winners from 2015 to 2025 that you can buy in the UK, and the full list back to 2000.The Prix Goncourt
You cannot win the Goncourt twice. Romain Gary invented a novelist who did not exist, and won it a second time.14
Follow it ifyou read translated fiction and want to know what France will be arguing about
Current winnerLa Maison vide by Laurent Mauvignier, 2025
Read the full pageThe Prix GoncourtTwelve modern winners that exist in English, nine classics, and the full table back to 2000.If you are only going to follow one
Three honest answers, depending on what you actually read.
- The Booker, if you read in English and want one book a year that everyone around you will have an opinion about. It is the only prize on this list whose shortlist reliably reaches shops before the winner is announced.
- The Nobel, if you would rather be sent somewhere you would never have found. It is for a body of work rather than a book, so winning it makes a writer’s whole shelf available at once — and usually in translation for the first time.
- The Giller, if you want to know what the Booker will shortlist next year. Five of its last ten winners went on to the Booker shortlist, every time with the same book, and none of them won it.
And the one to ignore, unless
The Prix Goncourt is the most influential prize on this page inside its own country and the least useful outside it. Its current winner has no English edition and probably will not for two years. Follow it only if you read French, or if you are content to arrive late.
Eight more prizes, each with its own page
They stay out of the calendar above, but each page has every winner and the ones worth reading. Two of them announce something this autumn: the Baillie Gifford and the Kirkus.
Dates for the Baillie Gifford15 and the Kirkus16 come from the prizes themselves.
Frequently asked questions about literary prizes
Which literary prize is announced next?
The National Book Award longlists, between 15 and 17 September 2026 — fifty books, ten in each of five categories. After that the Booker shortlist on 22 September, the Giller shortlist on 5 October, the National Book Award finalists and the second Goncourt selection both on 6 October, and the Nobel Prize in Literature on 8 October.
When is the Nobel Prize in Literature 2026 announced?
On Thursday 8 October 2026, at 1pm Central European Time at the earliest. The Swedish Academy does not name an exact minute, because the announcement follows the members’ final vote that morning. The ceremony is on 10 December in Stockholm.
Which literary prize pays the most?
The Nobel, by a distance: 11 million Swedish kronor, which is roughly a million euros. Then the Giller at 100,000 Canadian dollars, the Booker at 50,000 pounds, the two Women’s Prizes at 30,000 pounds each, the Pulitzer at 15,000 dollars and the National Book Award at 10,000 dollars per category. The Prix Goncourt pays ten euros, which is not a misprint: it is what is left of Edmond de Goncourt’s bequest of 1884 after a century of inflation. What it is worth is sales.
Which prize should I follow if I only follow one?
The Booker, if you read in English and want one book a year that everybody will have an opinion about. The Nobel, if you would rather be sent somewhere you would never have found. The Giller, if you want to know what the Booker will shortlist next year, because five of its last ten winners went on to be shortlisted, always the same book.
Why are so many prizes announced in October and November?
Because they are all aiming at the same six weeks of Christmas book-buying. Between 22 September and 18 November 2026 there are ten separate announcements across five prizes, and the two biggest fiction awards in the English-speaking world — the Booker and the National Book Award — land nine days apart.
What is the difference between the Booker Prize and the International Booker?
The Booker Prize is for a novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. The International Booker is a separate award for a book translated into English, with the prize money split equally between author and translator. They are run by the same foundation and announced at different times of year.
Do these prizes overlap?
Often, and in one direction more than others. Five of the last ten Giller winners were also shortlisted for the Booker, always the same book. Nine books have won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer for fiction. The Women’s Prize and the Booker share a shortlist most years. What almost never happens is a book winning two of them.
Which prizes are open to writers of any nationality?
The Booker, the Nobel and the two Women’s Prizes. The National Book Award requires US citizenship or a long-term home in the United States, the Giller requires Canadian citizenship or permanent residence, the Pulitzer is for American authors, and the Goncourt is for books written in French, whoever wrote them.
Can I enter a book for these prizes myself?
No. Every prize on this page is entered by publishers, not authors, and most of them cap the number of books an imprint may submit. That is worth knowing when you wonder why a book you loved is not on a longlist: it may never have been sent.
Footnotes
- The Booker Prize 2026 — thebookerprizes.com (shortlist 22 September, winner 9 November)
- The 2026 Nobel Prize announcements — Nobel Foundation (8 October, ceremony 10 December)
- Deadlines & Guidelines — National Book Foundation (longlists 15–17 September, finalists 6 October, winners 18 November)
- Women’s Prize for Fiction — womensprize.com (the 2027 calendar for both prizes)
- Important dates — gillerprize.ca (shortlist 5 October, winner 16 November)
- Prix Goncourt 2026 — Livres Hebdo (second selection 6 October, finalists 27 October, winner 3 November)
- How to Enter — The Pulitzer Prizes (book entry deadline 15 October; winners only “during the spring”)
- Black Bag (novel) — Wikipedia (the man in the bag, on the 2026 Booker longlist)
- Nomination archive: Jorge Luis Borges — Nobel Foundation (42 nominations, never awarded)
- 2025 National Book Award longlists announced — Publishers Weekly (1,835 submissions)
- Women’s Prize for Fiction — Wikipedia (the 1991 Booker shortlist that started it)
- The case for the prize — womensprize.com (the 26.5% of non-fiction reviews)
- Giller Prize drops Scotiabank from its name — CP24, 4 September 2024
- Le double Goncourt de Romain Gary — RTBF (the Ajar affair, step by step)
- 2026 longlist and judges — The Baillie Gifford Prize (shortlist 1 October, winner 4 November)
- Finalists for the 2026 Kirkus Prize revealed — Kirkus Reviews (winners 7 October)
Dates last checked 15 September 2026, each one against the prize’s own site rather than a round-up. Two things this page does not do. It gives no announcement date for the Pulitzer, because the Pulitzer publishes none — only that winners come during the spring — so the entry deadline is listed instead. And it does not promise that these dates will hold: prizes move them, and the Nobel in particular gives a time “at the earliest” rather than a time. If a date matters to you, check it against the footnote before you plan anything around it.
The notes on this page are all mine,
and the dates are all checked at the source.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Ten announcements in eight weeks, and then nothing until February.”
— The literary prize year, and why autumn is loud.
Nineteen dates is a lot to keep in your head. The newsletter goes out once a month and tells you which of them actually produced something worth reading.
Get book recommendations Browse the full bookshelf