The Government of Flanders is considering making the Boon Literary Prize a triple award, with equal recognition and rewards for fiction, non-fiction, and children’s and youth literature, according to the new Flemish coalition agreement.
Since 2022, Flanders has had its own prestigious literary prize, the Boon, with support from the regional government. Each year, the Boon is awarded in two categories: fiction and non-fiction, and children’s and youth literature, with prize money of €50,000 for each category.
This spring, the award was presented for the third time. Dutch author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer won with ‘Alkibiades,’ for fiction and non-fiction, while Erna Sassen and Martijn van der Linden won with ‘Neem nooit een beste vriend’ (‘Never take a best friend’) for children’s and youth literature.
The new Flemish government intends to continue the Boon awards, and to explore the possibility of increasing the prize’s categories from two to three.
The coalition agreement does not specify whether the prize money will remain €50,000 in each category.
