Coetzee is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language.[4][6][12][21] He has received numerous awards throughout his career, although he has a reputation for avoiding award ceremonies.[30]
1983 and 1999 Booker Prizes
Coetzee was the first writer to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: for Life & Times of Michael K in 1983, and for Disgrace in 1999.[31][32] As of 2020, four other authors have achieved this, J.G. Farrell, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel, and Margaret Atwood.
Summertime, named on the 2009 longlist,[33] was an early favourite to win Coetzee an unprecedented third Booker Prize.[34][35] It made the shortlist, but lost to bookmakers' favourite Wolf Hall, by Mantel.[36] Coetzee was also longlisted in 2003 for Elizabeth Costello and in 2005 for Slow Man.
The Schooldays of Jesus, a follow-up to his 2013 novel The Childhood of Jesus, was longlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize.[37]
2003 Nobel Prize in Literature
On 2 October 2003, the Swedish Academy announced that Coetzee had been chosen as that year's recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the fourth African writer to be so honoured[38] and the second South African, after Nadine Gordimer.[39] When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider".[40] The press release for the award also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance", while focusing on the moral nature of his work.[40] The prize ceremony was held in Stockholm on 10 December 2003.[39]
Other awards and recognition
Coetzee is a three-time winner of South Africa's CNA Literary Award (in 1977, 1980 and 1983).[41][42] His Waiting for the Barbarians received both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize,[43] Age of Iron was awarded the Sunday Express Book of the Year award,[44] and The Master of Petersburg was awarded The Irish Times International Fiction Prize in 1995.[45] He has also won the French Prix Femina étranger and two Commonwealth Writers' Prizes for the African region, for Master of St Petersburg in 1995 and for Disgrace in 2000 (the latter personally presented by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace),[46] and the 1987 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society.[43][44][47] In 1998, he received the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction.[48]
In 1984, Coetzee received an Honorary Fellow Award at the University of Cape Town.[19] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1988.[49] In 2001 he won the Outstanding Alumnus award at the University of Texas.[19] In 2004, he was made Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.[19]
On 27 September 2005, the South African government awarded Coetzee the Order of Mapungubwe (gold class) for his "exceptional contribution in the field of literature and for putting South Africa on the world stage".[50] In 2006, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[51] He holds honorary doctorates from The American University of Paris (2010),[19][52] the University of Adelaide (2005),[19][53] La Trobe University,[54] the University of Natal (1996),[19] the University of Oxford,[55] Rhodes University,[56] the State University of New York at Buffalo,[44] the University of Strathclyde,[44] the University of Technology, Sydney,[57] the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań,[58] and the Universidad Iberoamericana.[59]
In 2013, Richard Poplak of the Daily Maverick called Coetzee "inarguably the most celebrated and decorated living English-language author".[60]
Adelaide
November 2023, Barr Smith Library, Adelaide UniversityCoetzee first visited Adelaide in 1996, when he was invited to appear at Adelaide Writers' Week.[61] He made subsequent appearances at the festival in 2004,[62] 2010[63] (when he introduced Geoff Dyer),[64] and 2019 (when he introduced Marlene van Niekerk).[65]
In 2004, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide handed Coetzee the keys to the city.[61][19]
In 2010, Coetzee was made an international ambassador for Adelaide Writers' Week, along with American novelist Susanna Moore and English poet Michael Hulse.[66]
Coetzee is patron of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice (JMCCCP), a research centre and cultural hub founded at the University of Adelaide in 2015. The centre runs workshops with the aim of providing "a stimulating environment for emerging and established writers, scholars and musicians". Coetzee's work provides particular inspiration to encourage engagement with social and political issues, as well as music. The centre was established in 2015.[67]
In November 2014, Coetzee was honoured with a three-day academic conference, "JM Coetzee in the World", in Adelaide. It was called "the culmination of an enormous collaborative effort and the first event of its kind in Australia" and "a reflection of the deep esteem in which John Coetzee is held by Australian academia".[68]
From 9 to 10 November 2023, a celebration of Nobel Prize in Literature anniversaries, commemorating the winning of the prize by Coetzee in 2003 and Patrick White in 1973, was organised by the head of JMCCCP, Anne Pender, and held by the University of Adelaide. The program included several events over two days, including readings in the reading room of the Barr Smith Library by Coetzee, Christos Tsiolkas, Patrick Flanery, Helen Garner, Brian Castro, and others; music by Anna Goldsworthy and Paul Grabowsky; and screenings of Disgrace and The Eye of the Storm, which included talks by the filmmakers, at the Palace Nova Eastend Cinema.[69][70]
