Poplar Publishing Grand Prize for Fiction (Popura-sha Shōsetsu Taishō)
Email Address: Undisclosed
Editor/Founder: Poplar Publishing
Country: Japan
Type: Writers' Prize
Description: Established in 2005 by Poplar Publishing to provide recognition and economic support for writers of previously unpublished works of "entertainment fiction." The prize carries with it a cash award of 20 million yen, which is meant to provide aspiring novelists with the financial security that will allow them to concentrate solely on their creative work for several years. This makes the award the richest Japanese literary prize -- by far -- and although Poplar Publishing denies that it wants in this way to acquire its own stable of talented writers, it does expect the winners to produce for its exclusive use a minimum number of new novels for during the time period covered by the award. Certain details of the selection process remain hazy, as do the conditions imposed on the winners; but the response to the first competition, the results of which were announced in June 2006, was such that the number of applicants for other major literary awards for new writers seems to have fallen by as much as 20 percent. Although the stated purpose is to foster new talent, apparently no one is excluded from entering. The novel submitted must be previously unpublished, between 200 and 800 manuscript pages in length, and cannot have been submitted for consideration for any other literary award.
Read the news on the 2010 winner here.
(Directory entry)
Email Address: Undisclosed
Editor/Founder: Poplar Publishing
Country: Japan
Type: Writers' Prize
Description: Established in 2005 by Poplar Publishing to provide recognition and economic support for writers of previously unpublished works of "entertainment fiction." The prize carries with it a cash award of 20 million yen, which is meant to provide aspiring novelists with the financial security that will allow them to concentrate solely on their creative work for several years. This makes the award the richest Japanese literary prize -- by far -- and although Poplar Publishing denies that it wants in this way to acquire its own stable of talented writers, it does expect the winners to produce for its exclusive use a minimum number of new novels for during the time period covered by the award. Certain details of the selection process remain hazy, as do the conditions imposed on the winners; but the response to the first competition, the results of which were announced in June 2006, was such that the number of applicants for other major literary awards for new writers seems to have fallen by as much as 20 percent. Although the stated purpose is to foster new talent, apparently no one is excluded from entering. The novel submitted must be previously unpublished, between 200 and 800 manuscript pages in length, and cannot have been submitted for consideration for any other literary award.
Read the news on the 2010 winner here.
(Directory entry)
