Abstract
Literary prize purchasing power is inversely correlated with racial and gender diversity among prize recipients. Literary prizes can be seen as an indicator of institutional achievement in the United States, and the amount of money awarded is considered a proxy for level of achievement; the larger the prize cash-value, the more important the prize. By tracking prize values in the dataset assembled by Spahr, Grossman, and Young (“Index of Major Literary Prizes in the US,” 2022) and comparing recent award issuances with the inflation-adjusted values of the initial award values from their first issuance, inferences about award value decline are possible. The trend for major prizes is a gradual decline in adjusted value for awards such as the Whiting Award, Pulitzer Prize, and USA Fellowship, with some awards, such as MacArthur Genius Grants declining most steeply, though for other conflating factors. This is negatively correlated with the trend that these prizes increasingly recognize more diverse fields of awardees. The fact that as the field of literary prize winners is diversifying as the value of the major prizes is decreasing suggests that more funding of literary prizes is needed to produce equitable awarding practices at these elite institutions.
Presenters
Sean PessinStudent, Ph.D. in Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
LITERARY PRIZES, CULTURAL STUDIES, DIVERSITY, LITERATURE, U.S. LITERATURE, PUBLISHING
