- Not to be confused with the Jerusalem Prize awarded for activity in other fields, such as architecture
The
Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial
literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the
Jerusalem International Book Fair, and the recipient usually delivers an address when accepting the award. The award is valued at $10,000, a modest amount that "reflects that it was never intended to be anything more than a symbolic sum." The prize's inaugural year was 1963, awarded to Bertrand Russell who had won the
Nobel Prize in 1950.
Octavio Paz,
V. S. Naipaul,
J. M. Coetzee and
Mario Vargas Llosa all won the Jerusalem Prize prior to winning the Nobel.