Costa Book Awards

The Booksellers Association administer the Costa Book Awards, which is one of the most prestigious and popular literary prizes in the UK and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The Costa Book Awards has five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book. The winner in each category receives £5,000. One of these five books is selected as the overall winner of the Book of the Year and receives a further £30,000, making a total prize fund of £55,000. It is the only prize which places children's books alongside adult books in this way.

The Awards started life in 1971 as the Whitbread Literary Awards. From 1985 they were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006, when Costa Coffee took over ownership - the year that both Costa and the Book Awards celebrated their 35^th anniversary.


2016 Category Winners
Costa First Novel Award: Golden Hill  by Francis Spufford

Costa Novel Award: Days Without End  by Sebastian Barry

Costa Biography Award: Dadland by  Keggie Carew

Costa Poetry Award: Falling Awake by  Alice Oswald

Costa Children's Book Award: The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan


The Costa Book of the Year will be announced on the 31st January 2017.

Follow @CostaBookAwards for the latest updates.