"State Literary Awards"

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State literary awards are the highest literary distinction attributed to writers from the Greek state. They are awarded each year to authors whose books have been published during the previous year and have been deposited at the National Library of Greece by 31 January of the year of the crisis.

History
Post-war state literary awards were reactivated since 1956. The jury consisted of: Andreas Karadonis, Vasos Varikas, K. Th. Dimaras, Alkis Thrylos, George Zoras, Kostis Bastias, Angelos Fouriotis (secretary) and government commissioner George Kurnoutos. (This position is currently held by the Head of the Directorate of Letters of the Ministry of Culture). The categories that existed were poetry, novel, short story, essay, novel biography, travel impressions, playplay while there were first and second awards.

In 1971 the essay category was enriched with the addition of the criticism award. Thus, this category is called, to date, a category of "criticism - essay" The addition of the award of criticism marks the beginning of a new era for critical literary thought combined, alongside the study of interoperability and, of course, coincides with the emergence of important scholars of modern literature, who do not come exclusively from the academic community.

1988 is the last year that I and II Awards are awarded. From the following year the state award is only one for each category. The two awards per category often operated balancingly, so that more expectations were met. But it often acted as a two-speed award, resulting in several of the winners not accepting their awards. In 1989 the time-testimony award, the children's literary book award and the translation award were added. The time-testimony award replaced, in a way, the categories of "travel impressions" and "fiction biography", while the introduction of the literary translation award states the increased book production and opening of Greek publishers and foreign titles. Finally, experimentally, this year the "Special Prize for Literature", which a few years later was modified to "Great Prize for Literature" and awarded - stablely from 1993 to today - to great personalities of letters. At first it was the honour due to people of letters who had been wronged by state awards, mainly due to political beliefs.

In 1997 (Law 2577) children's book categories are strengthened and enriched with the children's book and knowledge book illustration category. This year the category of literary translation of Greek literature is also created in a foreign language. Finally the Special Prize for Literature from this year is renamed the Grand Prize for Literature.
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