Booker Worthen Literary Prize

The Booker Worthen Literary Prize is awarded each year to the best work, fiction or non-fiction, by an author living in Arkansas. With a stipend of $2,000, it is one of the state’s most lucrative and prestigious literary prizes.

The Booker Worthen Literary Prize was established in 1999 in the memory of William Booker Worthen, who was a member of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) Board of Trustees for twenty-two years, as well as part of the Worthen Bank empire. The award is funded in part by interest from an endowment for the award donated by the Worthen family.

The Worthen Prize was awarded in a joint program with the Porter Fund Literary Prize until 2021. This generally occurred in October, but, in 2008, the year that CALS took over responsibility of what is now the Six Bridges Book Festival, the reception was moved to coincide with the festival, although it was not an official part of the festival. In 2012, however, the award ceremony returned to October. The winning book is selected by the Worthen Prize Committee. Originally, to qualify, authors had live in the CALS service area, which included over thirty counties in central Arkansas with which the library system had a lending agreement (called the “Gateway Program”). However, in 2020, after CALS withdrew from the Gateway Program, the award was expanded to cover the entire state of Arkansas.

There is a three-year period of eligibility based on a book’s copyright year. Five authors—Mara Leveritt, Kevin Brockmeier, Grif Stockley, S. Charles Bolton, and Kenneth C. Barnes—have won the award twice.