- Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades – awarded for outstanding book(s) incorporating folklore published in English for children or young adults
- Agatha Award – honors the best first mystery novel, best novel, best non-fiction, best short story, and best juvenile/young adult mystery published each year
- Américas Award – given in recognition of US works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States
- Asian American Literary Awards – honours Asian-American writers for their contribution to literature
- Bancroft Prizes – awarded to the authors of distinguished works in either or both of the following categories: American history (including biography) and diplomacy
- Black Caucus Literature Awards – recognize excellence in adult fiction and nonfiction by African American authors published in in the previous year, recognition of a first novelist, as well as a citation for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing
- Boston Book Review Literary Prize – recognizing the finest of the year’s literary offerings, includes three awards: the Bingham Poetry Prize, given in memory of Belinda Bingham Pierce; the Rea Non-Fiction Prize, in memory of Anne Rea Jewell; and the Fisk Fiction Prize, in memory of Lilla Fisk Rand
- Boston Globe Horn Book Award – awarded annually, honouring outstanding children’s and young adults’ books in three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and Picture Book
- Caldecott Medal – awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children
- Charlotte Zolotow Award – given annually to the author of the best picture book text published in the United States in the preceding year
- Edgar Allan Poe Awards – the coveted awards for achievement in the mystery field, bestowed by The Mystery Writers of America
- Elizabeth Burr Award – to a Wisconsin author/illustrator for distinguished achievement in children’s literature
- Firecracker Alternative Book Award – started in 1996 by a group of book industry professionals to celebrate and publicize the best in alternative publishing
- Giverny Book Award – awarded for best children’s science picture book
- Hugo Award (Science Fiction Achievement Award) – given annually by the World Science Fiction Society and awarded for a work that appeared in the previous calendar year
- Jefferson Cup – honors a distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history book for young people, and seeks to promote reading about America’s past, the writing of US history, biography and historical fiction for young people, and the recognition of authors in these disciplines
- John Steptoe Award for New Talent – given to a black author and to a black illustrator for an outstanding book, and is designed to bring visibility to a writer or artist at the beginning of his/her career as a published book creator
- Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize – awarded each year to recognize books that promote greater understanding among people of the Pacific Rim
- Lannan Literary Awards – established in 1989 to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality
- Laura Ingalls Wilder Award – honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children over a period of years
- Mythopoeic Awards – given to the fantasy novel, multi-volume, or single-author story collection for adults and for children published during the previous year that best exemplifies “the spirit of the Inklings”
- National Book Awards – established in 1950 by a consortium of publishing groups who wanted to bring to the public’s attention exceptional books written by Americans, as well as encourage reading in general, and are given to recognize achievements in four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature
- National Book Critics Circle Awards – offered in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism
- National Jewish Book Award – recognizes distinguished authors writing on Jewish themes, who have published in the US or Canada, and focuses on either a particular book or a body of work and is awarded in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature
- National Outdoor Book Awards – honours the best in outdoor writing and publishing
- Native Writers Circle of the Americas Awards – the only literature awards bestowed on Native American Indian writers by Native American Indian people
- Nebula Awards – chosen by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novellette, Short Story, and Script
- Newbery Medal – awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children’s book published the previous year
- Notable Books – selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge or for the pleasure they can provide to readers
- O. Henry Awards – awarded for short fiction
- PEN/Faulkner Award – founded in 1980 by writers to honor their peers, and is now the largest juried award for fiction in the US
- Phoenix Award – awarded annually to a book orginally published in English twenty years previously which did not receive a major award at the time of its publication
- Prometheus Award – presented for the best libertarian science fiction novel of the year
- Pulitzer Prize in Drama – honors excellence in American drama
- Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism – honors excellence in American journalism
- Pulitzer Prizes in Letters – honors excellence in American literature
- Robert F. Kennedy Book Award – presented annually by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial to the book which “most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy’s purposes – his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity”
- Rhysling Award – awarded for science fiction and fantasy poetry, and are named after the famed bard from Robert A. Heinlein’s short story “The Green Hills of Earth”
- Spur Awards – given annually for distinguished writing about the American West
- Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets – an annual award to US poets
- World Fantasy Award – recognizes the best writers and artists working in the fields of light and dark fantasy
- Young Readers Choice Award – the Youth Division goes to a book for grades 4-8, and the Senior Division (added in 1991) for grades 9-12
