“The Neustadt International Prize for Literature [is] widely regarded as the most prestigious international literary award after the Nobel.” — Lawrence Van Gelder, “Footlights,” New York Times, February 26, 1998
RECENT NEWS
THE PRIZES
The Neustadt Prize
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today since 1970. It is the first international literary award of this scope to originate in the United States and one of few international prizes for which poets, novelists, and playwrights are equally eligible.
The NSK Prize
The NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, initiated in 2003, aims to enhance the quality of children’s literature by promoting writing that contributes to the quality of their lives. Laureates receive a check for $35,000, a silver medallion, and a certificate at a public ceremony at the University of Oklahoma and are featured in a subsequent issue of World Literature Today.
2021 NEUSTADT LIT FEST
2021 Featured Authors
See what authors, artists, and scholars are participating in the 2021 festival.
2021 Festival Schedule
The 2021 lit fest will resume as an in-person festival with simultaneous live streams of every event.
RECENT PRIZEWINNERS
2020 Neustadt Prize
2019 NSK Prize
2018 Neustadt Prize
2017 NSK Prize
The Neustadt Family
Through three generations of active, visionary leadership, the Neustadt family has promoted excellence in higher education. The Neustadt family’s major support of the University of Oklahoma includes the gift of land for the Max Westheimer Airpark, the addition of the Neustadt Wing in the Bizzell Memorial Library, sponsorship of both Neustadt Prizes, student scholarships, and the establishment of the Neustadt Professorship in Comparative Literature.
A Look Back
“Children’s writers are quite used to being considered second-class citizens in the world of the literati, but at the University of Oklahoma, this was never true.”
– Katherine Paterson, “Neustadt Memories,” World Literature Today 88, no. 5 (September/October 2014)
Read more about the 2007 NSK Prize laureate and author of Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson.
Now available! DISPATCHES FROM THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS
$30.00 – Royalties support student scholarships
Edited by Daniel Simon
Celebrating the prize that has honored international literature’s top players, from Octavio Paz to Elizabeth Bishop, a groundbreaking collection of Neustadt Laureate acceptance speeches and literary evocations of the muse.
Publication Date: October 20th, 2020
When is the next Neustadt Lit Fest?
The next festival will take place in fall 2021 (October 25-27) on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The festival will celebrate 2021 NSK winner Cynthia Leitich Smith and will feature the 2022 Neustadt jury.
Who can nominate writers for the Neustadt and NSK Prizes?
Only members of the Neustadt and NSK Prize juries can nominate finalists for the prizes. The members of each year’s jury are determined by the executive director of World Literature Today (who is the only permanent member) in consultation with World Literature Today’s editors and the president of the University of Oklahoma. Each juror nominates one author for the prize.
How can I learn more about Neustadt and NSK laureates?
Since the founding of the Neustadt Prize in 1969, World Literature Today has published a featured section about the prizewinning author in a subsequent issue of the magazine. Check out WLT’s archives on JSTOR, or read recent issues online or with a print subscription.
Want to teach the works of Neustadt and NSK prizewinning authors?
Check out our education network to download free curricula for your classroom.
MORE THAN A PRIZE
Neustadt Lit Fest
The Neustadt Lit Fest is an annual literary festival hosted by World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma that ranks as one of the premier celebrations of international literary excellence . During the festival week, thousands of people attend keynote talks, discussions, workshops, and social events where they can meet the prizewinning author as well as many world-renowned visiting writers, artists, and scholars.
World Literature Today
The staff and editorial team behind one of America’s longest-published literary magazines, World Literature Today, sponsors the Neustadt Prizes and hosts the annual literary festival. With over 90+ years of continuous publication, the magazine has featured all the Neustadt and NSK prizewinning authors and published groundbreaking literature from authors around the world. Check out the most recent issue, learn more about the magazine, or donate at worldlit.org.
Commitment to Education
What makes the Neustadt Prizes truly unique is a deep-rooted educational mission. In conjunction with the prizes, World Literature Today teaches an annual college course centered on the writings of the prize’s winner and Neustadt jury members. The Neustadt Lit Fest also invites writers and scholars to teach workshops on writing, translation, and art during the festival, and our new education network provides Neustadt curricula for FREE to any educators who are interested in teaching the works of our authors in their classrooms.
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IN MEMORIAM
A Swedish Poet in Oklahoma: Remembering Tomas Tranströmer
March 30, 2015
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Tranströmer’s visit to the University of Oklahoma to accept the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, an event commemorated in the Autumn 1990 issue of WLT.
Read the full tribute at worldlit.org >>
A Tribute to Assia Djebar (1936–2015): The 1996 Neustadt Prize Laureate
February 9, 2015
…In her honor, we reprint below the tribute Mohammed Dib penned in 1996, when she was named the fourteenth laureate of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature—the third Algerian writer to be nominated for the prize, following Dib and Habib Tengour, and the first African-born laureate.
Read the full tribute at worldlit.org >>
A Tribute to Gabriel García Márquez
April 18, 2014
García Márquez received the first of many international awards when he was chosen as the winner of the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, having been nominated by the Icelandic writer Thor Vilhjálmsson and chosen by an international jury from an illustrious slate of candidates …
Read the full tribute at worldlit.org. >>
