The Cankar Award (Slovene: Cankarjeva nagrada) is a literary award established in 2019 by the Slovenian PEN, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the University of Ljubljana.

It is named after Ivan Cankar, Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist.

[1] The award initially consisted of a €5,000 prize and a diploma.

The inaugural nominees for the 2020 award were Vinko Möderndorfer, Sebastijan Pregelj, Simona Semenič and Brane Senegačnik.

[3] The 2023 nominees were Katja Gorečan, Adriana Kuči, Mojca Kumerdej, Mirana Likar and Lado Kralj.