On Prize

The Rotary Prize for Hungarian Literature was established in 2008 by the Budapest-Tabán Rotary. Any original literary work is eligible - be it a novel, short stories or verse - which has been published in Hungarian between consecutive annual book weeks, which expresses the Rotary values and is of high literary value. The winner receives a trophy and three million Hungarian Forints.

The board of judges which awards this prize is presided over by Zoltán Sumonyi, author, writer and Managing Director / Vice-President of the Hungarian P.E.N. Club. Other members are: Gyorgy Gömöri, a Hungarian poet living in London and professor at Cambridge University; and Mihály Ilia, a literary historian and professor at Szeged University. The board of judges requests assessments from editors not employed by any publisher but who deal with literature on a professional basis. The anonymity of these individuals is maintained to ensure they are not prejudiced by each other or by anyone else. These editors assess on a pre-determined point system every work which they became familiar with in the relevant period. In their ranking, they take account of not only the quality of the literature but also whether the work expresses the basic tenets of the Rotary Movement, namely the protection and strengthening of humanity and justice.

The names of the three writers who received the most nominations will be made public in the final press release before the event, and the final winner will be chosen from these three nominations. The Tabán Rotary Club Charitable Foundation organises the prize; and the prize's costs are met by members of the Friends of the Rotary Prize for Hungarian Literature as well as by individuals and companies who consider literature to be important. Neither the Foundation nor the Friends expect or would accept support from any state insitution or political party.