Kenzaburō Ōe Prize

The Kenzaburō Ōe Prize (大江健三郎賞) is a literary award, and is sponsord by Kodansha (講談社). Established in 2006 in memory of two anniversaries: 100th anniversary of Kodansha's establishment and the 50th anniversary of the writing life of Kenzaburō Ōe (大江健三郎). The objects of this award are Japanese literary novels published in the last year, and the best work is elected by Ōe only.

Since one of the aims of this award is the promotion of Japanese novels of the young generation which are the representations of words of the Japanese intellectuals, this prize is awarded to the best novel which contains the best 'literary words' with possibilities and results judged by Ōe.

The winner receives no cash award, but the awarded novel will be translated into other languages such as English, French and German for publications.

Kenzaburō Ōe has an open conversation with the winner, which works as compensation for Ōe's criticism.

The first winner in 2007 is Yū Nagashima (長嶋有) for 'Yūko-chan no Chikamichi (夕子ちゃんの近道), The shortcut of Yūko-chan'.

List of winners

Year Author Japanese title English title
2007 長嶋有
Yū Nagashima
夕子ちゃんの近道
Yūko-chan no Chikamichi
The shortcut of Yūko-chan
2008 岡田利規
Toshiki Okada
わたしたちに許された特別な時間の終わり
Watashitachi ni Yurusareta Tokubetsu na Jikan no Owari
The end of the special time unrestricted to us
2009 安藤礼二
Reiji Ando
光の曼荼羅 日本文学論
Hikari no Mandara, Nihon Bungaku Ron
A Mandala of light, On Japanese literature
2010 中村文則
Huminori Nakamura
掏摸
Suri
Pickpocket

External links

The statement of the Kenzaburō Ōe award (in Japanese) http://www.kodansha.co.jp/kaigai/ooe/index.html