Runciman Award Explained

The Runciman Award is an annual literary award offered by the Anglo-Hellenic League for a work published in English dealing wholly or in part with Greece or Hellenism.[1] On some years the prize has been awarded jointly and shared between two or more authors. The award is named in honour of the late Sir Steven Runciman and is currently sponsored (since 2021) by the A.G. Leventis Foundation and the Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation.[2] The value of the prize is £10,000.

Recipients

UK prizes

Prizes awarded for books published in the United Kingdom in the previous year:

Year Name WorkEditor
1986 Travellers in Greece Cambridge University Press
1987 No award - -
1988 Brigands with a Cause:Brigandage and Irredentism in Modern Greece, 1820-1921 Oxford University Press
1989 Hagia Sophia: Architecture,Structure and Liturgy of Justinian’s Great Church Thames and Hudson
1990 Herodotus Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1991 The Academic Papers Oxford University Press
1992 Greece and the Inter-War Economic Crisis Oxford University Press
1992 Crete: the Battle and the Resistance John Murray
1993 A Concise History of Greece Cambridge University Press
1994 The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180 Cambridge University Press
1995 An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature Oxford University Press
1996 The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity Thames and Hudson
1996 Monks and Laymen in Byzantium, 843-1118 Cambridge University Press
1997 Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece Routledge
1997 The Making of the Cretan Landscape Manchester University Press
1997 A History of Greek-owned Shipping: the Making of an International Tramp Fleet, 1830 to the present day Routledge
1997 Understanding Greek Sculpture:Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings Thames and Hudson
1998 Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War Routledge
1998 The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth Clarendon Press, Oxford
1998 Painting and the Soul: Icons, Death Masks and Shrouds Reaktion Books
1998Dinner with Persephone Granta Books
1999 Lawrence Durrell: a Biography Faber & Faber
1999 Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities and Society in England, 1830-1960 Clarendon Press, Oxford
1999 Dictionary of Classical Mythology Cassell
2000 Celebrating Homer’s Landscapes Yale University Press
2000 The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History Cambridge University Press
2001 An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades Cambridge University Press
2002 The Archaeology of Ancient Greece Cambridge University Press
2003 The Archaeology of Nostalgia:How the Greeks re-created their Mythical Past Thames and Hudson

UK and Worldwide Prizes

From 2004, prizes have been awarded for books published in English anywhere in the world in the previous year:

Year Name WorkEditor
2004George Seferis – Waiting for the Angel – A BiographyYale University Press
2005 Mark Mazower Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews Harper Collins
2006 Robin Lane Fox The Classical World Time Warner Book Group
Persian Fire Allen Lane
2007 Bruce ClarkTwice a StrangerGranta Books
Robert Holland & Diana Markides The British and the Hellenes Oxford University Press
2008 Imogen Grundon The Rash Adventurer: A Life of John Pendlebury Libri Publications
2009 Greece - A Jewish History Princeton University Press
2010 Juliet du Boulay Cosmos, Life and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village Denise Harvey Publishers
2011 Molly Greene Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early Modern Mediterranean Princeton University Press
Afro-Greeks: Dialogues Between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the 20th Century Oxford University Press
2012 Peter Thonemann The Maeander Valley Cambridge University Press
2013 Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy Oxford University Press
2014 Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution[3] Cambridge University Press
2015 The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science Bloomsbury Publishing
2016 Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium Cambridge University Press
2017a (jointly) Epigram, Art and Devotion in Later Byzantium Cambridge University Press
2017b (jointly) Benefaction and Rewards in the Ancient Greek City Cambridge University Press
2018a (jointly) Classical Greek Oligarchy Princeton University Press
2018b (jointly) House of Names Penguin/Viking
2019a (jointly) Time and its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire Belknap Press of Harvard
2019b (jointly) The Transformation of Athens: Painted Pottery and the Creation of Classical Greece Princeton University Press
2020/21 Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation Allen Lane
2022 John Craxton: A Life of Gifts Yale University Press
2023 This Afterlife: Selected Poems Carcanet
2024 Alexandria: The City that Changed the World Sceptre

Notes and References

  1. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_civ_7370064_07/06/2007_84241 "Runciman Award goes to two winners"
  2. http://runcimanaward.org/2021/05/24/two-new-sponsors-guarantee-the-future-of-the-anglo-hellenic-league-runciman-award/ Two New Sponsors
  3. http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/news/runciman-award-2014-goes-byrons-war/ The Runciman Award 2014 goes to Byron’s War