The Donald Windham Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes (the Windham Campbell Prizes for short) are American literary awards offering prizes in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award was established at Yale University in 2011 with the first prizes presented in 2013. Administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the awards recognise English language writers from anywhere in the world. The mission of the awards is to call attention to literary achievements and provide writers the opportunity to focus on their work independent of financial concerns. Eight prizes are awarded annually.
Winners receive a citation and an unrestricted remuneration of $175 000. The individual prizes are among the richest literary prize amounts in the world. The awards are endowed from the combined estates of writer Donald Windham and actor Sandy Campbell.
Campbell was Windham’s companion of 45 years, and when Campbell died in 1988, he left his estate to Windham with the understanding that a literary award would be created from the combined estate after Windham’s death. Windham died in 2010, and in 2011, Yale announced they would become the administrators of the new award.
The Windham-Campbell Prizes were generous co-sponsors of the 2024 Doek Literary Festival, making Ishion Hutchinson and Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s attendances possible.