Westport Prize For Literature

The Westport Prize for Literature is an annual prize established to honor an original work of literary fiction that is both relevant and timeless. The prize is overseen and administered by a steering committee of Westport resident volunteers, with an independent jury selecting the winner. 

The prize is open to an author of an original work of long-form fiction published in the United States each calendar year (between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, for the 2025 prize). The submission window for the 2025 Westport Prize for Literature will open in December 2024, with a submission deadline of February 14, 2025.

The winner received a $10,000 prize and will be invited to a special ceremony held at the Library, tentatively scheduled for October 2025. Freedom is a Feast, the debut novel from Venezuelan writer Alejandro Puyana, was named the 2024 award winner; click here to watch the 2024 ceremony.

Eligibility

  • Only full-length novels written in English are eligible. 
  • Novels in ALL genres are welcome.
  • Only books published for the first time in the United States between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, are eligible.
  • Only finished copies in electronic form will be accepted.
  • Novellas, collections of short stories, whether related or unrelated, and YA novels are NOT eligible.
  • Books previously published elsewhere are NOT eligible. This includes self-publishing the book previously.
  • Self-published books and eBook-only editions are NOT eligible.
  • In the event of a dispute as to eligibility, the Westport Prize for Literature Steering Committee will decide whether a book is eligible, and its decision will be binding.
  • All submissions must be submitted via our web portal by February 14, 2025.

Process

  • For the 2025 prize, established and independent publishing houses are being invited to submit manuscripts for consideration. The cost is $100 per submission.
  • Submitted manuscripts will be vetted by volunteer readers who will score the book based on provided criteria. Click here if you are interested in volunteering to be a Westport Prize for Literature reader. (Please note: You must be a Westport resident to be a reader.)
  • The submissions, with the aggregated scores from the readers, will be submitted to a jury of experts to select that year’s winner. The jury is selected by the Westport Prize for Literature Steering Committee. 

Steering Committee Members

Candice Savin, chair

Alison Hoffman

Patra Kanchanagom

Maggie Mudd

Past Recipients

Alejandro Puyana, Freedom is a Feast

The 2024 Westport Prize for Literature was awarded to Alejandro Puyana for Freedom is a Feast, his acclaimed debut novel, a multigenerational saga of love and revolution set in the author’s native Venezuela.

Zadie Smith, The Fraud

The 2023 inaugural Westport Prize for Literature was awarded to Zadie Smith, who was recognized for The Fraud, described by publisher Penguin Random House as “a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story — and who gets to be believed.” 

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