How are literary awards decided? A Pulitzer Prize judge reveals the inner workings of literary awards.
Novelist
Book Prizes Don't Work How You Think - by Rebecca Makkai
https://rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/book-prizes-dont-work-how-you-think
According to Makaay, writers and readers tend to have many misconceptions about how award judging processes work. Therefore, Makaay says he wants to clear up some of these misconceptions based on his experience serving on the judging panel for six literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, over the past eight years.
First, it's important to clarify a common misconception: in most cases, the award-winning organization doesn't decide which works win the literary prize. Instead, it's a panel of judges consisting of 'writers, critics, booksellers, and other individuals.' While literary prizes are often sponsored by organizations, their responsibility is limited to verifying eligibility; they generally don't participate in the decision-making process regarding which works receive the award. Therefore, Makaay states that stereotypes and past data regarding 'what kind of works this award favors' are not always accurate.
Furthermore, Makaay pointed out that the perception that 'judges read every submitted book from beginning to end' is not true. In awards where Makaay has served as a judge in the past, he was sometimes required to read hundreds of books in about six months, and he revealed that the reality of the judging process is twofold: 'Not all judges can read every book' and 'Judges are allowed to stop reading a book if they find one they don't like.'
Furthermore, since the initial reading stage usually involves only one person looking at the book, whether or not it moves on to the next stage can depend on the preference of just one person. Mr. Makaay says that he has sometimes passed on books to other judges because 'I didn't particularly like the book, but there might be a judge who would like it,' and that such books have actually made it to the final shortlist for the award. However, in some cases, the decision of whether or not to pass the book on to other judges is left to the judgment of the judge who read it first. Mr. Makaay also says that he has heard of judging committees where one judge did not read enough of the book, and the other judges were unable to make up for the deficiency, resulting in most of the submitted books not being reviewed.
In recent years, diversity in literary awards has been a subject of discussion, but Makaay states that 'we do not select winners based on specific attributes.' He explains that the judging process is based solely on evaluating the works themselves, and that the final stage is merely to check for any unconscious bias in the overall selection of nominated works. Makaay also states that in the case of submissions by publishers, it is not uncommon for excellent works to be overlooked because the publishers forget to submit them or miss the deadline, or conversely, for works that do not fit the spirit of the award to be submitted.
However, the Pulitzer Prize works a little differently. For the Pulitzer Prize, a jury consisting of five writers and critics selects three finalists, but the judges do not directly decide the winner. Instead, they send their selected works to the 'Pulitzer Prize Committee' at Columbia University. This committee is mainly composed of journalists, with a few poets and novelists, and after reading all the finalists, they meet for two days on the Columbia University campus to make the final decision in all fields.
If the selection committee is dissatisfied with a judge's nomination, they can ask the executive director to consult with the chairperson to see if there are other more suitable works. As a result, the judges themselves may not even know which of their nominated works will win. Also, while the identities of judges are made public for most awards, the judges for each category of the Pulitzer Prize are kept secret until the winners are announced.
While Makaay acknowledges that literary awards are run under many coincidences and constraints, he believes the process is far more pure than one might imagine. Works are not selected based on nepotism, nor is being rejected in one judging round a disadvantage in the future. 'There is no such thing as being treated unfairly in the publishing industry,' Makaay states. Although he is exhausted from serving on numerous judging panels and believes the literary world should not be dominated by one person's opinion, he says that judging literary awards is valuable because it allows one to clearly express what is most important to them in writing.
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