The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award given annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of "imaginative literature" – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the previous calendar year.
Previous winners of the prize are excluded from the shortlist.
Unlike other major literary awards, the Hawthornden Prize does not solicit submissions.
It, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, are Britain's oldest literary awards.
[7] It is currently administered by Hawthornden Foundation, established by Drue Heinz.