The Bookspot Literatuurprijs is a prize for literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is awarded to authors writing in Dutch and amounts to 50,000. The ceremony is televised live each year. The prize was conceived in 1986 and inaugurated the following year with the aim to promote literature and increase the public's interest in books.
Name and sponsorship
The name of the prize has not been constant, reflecting the main sponsors. It was first prefixed with AKO after its sponsor-founder, the Amsterdamsche Kiosk Onderneming, a chain of over 100 bookstores and newsstands in the Netherlands. From 1997 through 1999 it was sponsored by Belgium's Generale Bank and was named accordingly – Generale Bank Literatuurprijs. The bank was absorbed and the sponsorship presumably assumed by Fortis Bankin 1999, but the financing of the prize reverted to AKO before the 2000 award, so the name Fortis Literatuurprijs was never formally implemented. Beginning in 2015, AKO dropped sponsorship and the prize was sponsored by ECI, a book club and webshop. ECI changed its name in March 2018 to Bookspot, so the literary award had to change as well.
Selection procedure
The Bookspot Literatuurprijs is awarded by a five-member jury of Dutch and Belgian book critics, some of whom have served on it repeatedly. The sixth person, the head of the jury, changes every year and is usually a public figure, often a politician. The nominations follow the system of a longlist, tiplijst, of 25 preliminary nominees and a shortlist, toplijst, of six finalists. In order to be considered for a given year, a book needs to be published before the first of July of the year in which the prize is to be awarded and after 30 June of the preceding year. The winner is usually announced later in the fall. The Bookspot award comprehends the categories fiction and non-fiction. Additionally to the jury steered Bookspot Literatuurprijs there is a separate BookSpot Lezersprijs which enables the readers' vote and grants 10.000 Euro to the winner. The process is well-elaborated: thirty books are selected by the general jury, two longlists of 15 books in fiction and non-fiction categories, published online annually any 4 September. Any reader can vote for his favorite books. The three most chosen books form the BookSpot Lezersprijs Top 3. A separate BookSpot Lezersjury of fifty readers read those three books and elect the final Lezersprijs winner.
