Prizeworthy Literary Culture

An exploration of how literary prizes shape notions of value, this book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to investigate how prize culture is influenced by, produces, and affirms practices of kinship and dis/identification, endorsement, cohesion and investment. With literary prizes among the most frequently discussed modes of taste production in contemporary book culture, chapters in this volume examine the different contexts, conventions and expectations that determine notions of ‘prizeworthy’ literature. Thematically structured around pre-publication awards, the social fabric of ‘prizeworthiness’, the impact of a prize’s endorsement, and the affective universe of the literary prize, it includes case studies on queer literary counterpublics, Goodreads, translation, ‘political awards’ and the book industry as represented in works by R. F. Kuang and Sally Rooney. Pulling from national contexts across the UK, US, Australia, Germany and South Africa, the chapters dig into what is deemed precious in bookish communities, how it infuses literary plots and aesthetics as well as writing, marketing, curating, reading and selling practices.Drawing from literary studies, publishing studies and contemporary book studies, it historicizes the respective issues discussed, approaching them with a heightened sense of intersectionality, to offer new perspectives on how books become precious, and how the possibility of being ‘prized’ interacts with literature in all shapes and forms.