Costa Book Awards

Costa Book Awards, formerly Whitbread Book Awards, major annual literary awards in the categories of Biography, Novel, First Novel, Poetry, and Children's Book.

The award was established in 1971 by Whitbread plc and the Booksellers Association to reward outstanding achievement in a variety of literary genres, to encourage writers in those fields, and to raise awareness of these works in a wider reading public. In 2006, the café chain Costa Coffee took over sponsorship of the awards, which are open to British and Irish writers only. A prize of £5,000 is awarded to the winner in each category, and a further £25,000 is awarded to the Costa Book of the Year, the title selected from the winners in the five categories. The overall prize went to a children’s title for the first time when Philip Pullman won with The Amber Spyglass at the 2001 awards.

Although they are perhaps less high profile than the Man Booker Prize, the Costa Book Awards are significant in drawing together a range of works from different fields of literature, and in their selection of works of more universal appeal. In the past the panel of judges has been made up of prominent authors, booksellers, critics, politicians, and celebrities. Recent winners have included Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Seamus Heaney, Andrew Motion, Jeanette Winterson, and Ted Hughes.