Costa Book Awards

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Arts & Culture

Costa Book Awards

literary award

Also known as: Whitbread Book Awards, Whitbread Literary Awards

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Category: Arts & Culture

Formerly:: Whitbread Literary Awards (1971–84), Whitbread Book Awards (1985–2005)

Related Topics:: English literature; novel; biography; poetry

Notable Honorees:: James Fenton; Salman Rushdie; J.K. Rowling; Kate Atkinson

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Costa Book Awards, series of literary awards given annually to writers resident in the United Kingdom and Ireland for books published there in the previous year. The awards are administered by the British Booksellers Association. Established in 1971, they were initially sponsored by the British corporation Whitbread PLC. In 2006 Costa Coffee, a British coffee shop chain and a subsidiary of Whitbread, assumed ownership of the awards. Awards are given in five categories (novel, first novel, poetry, biography, and children’s); in addition, since 1985 one of these winners has been chosen for the Costa Book of the Year. A prize ...(100 of 186 words)

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