Andrei Bely Prize Aleksandr Lavrov, Elena Fanailova and Alexandra Petrova. Andrei Bely Prize The Andrei Bely Prize (Russian: Премия Андрея Белого; "Premiya Andreya Belovo") is the oldest independent literary prize awarded in Russia. It was established in 1978 by the staff of "Hours", the largest samizdat literary journal in Leningrad, to recognize excellence in three categories: prose, poetry, and theory. Among its founders were Boris Ivanov, Boris Ostanin, Viktor Krivulin, Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, and other eminent figures of uncensored literature. The prize was named for Andrei Bely, whose influence spanned Russian poetry, prose, and humanitarianism. Materially, the prize consisted of an apple, a single
Literary award Fiction Award, the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, and the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction and Lyttle Lytton Contests, which are both given to deliberately bad sentences. There are also literary awards that are targeted specifically to encourage the writing of African-Americans and authors of African descent. Two national awards that do this are Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, which was established in 2007 by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, which is given by the National Community of Black Writers. Australian author Richard Flanagan wrote a critique of literary awards, saying "National prizes