Golden Book-Owl
series of annual Belgian literature prizes for original Dutch-language literary work, awarded from 2016 onwards. From 2012 to 2015 it was called the Gouden Boekenuil

The Golden Book‑Owl (De Gouden Boekenuil) was a major Belgian literary award for original Dutch language literature. It originated in 1995 as the Golden Owl (De Gouden Uil), re‑emerged after a funding hiatus in 2012 under the current English name, and was re‑branded once more in 2016 as the Fintro Literatuurprijs.
Development
It has changed categories several times during the years. For the first five years it consisted of three columns: Fiction, non-fiction and children and youth books. As for 2000 to 2008 the non-fiction category was replaced by an audience award. In 2009 and 2010 it had even four categories: Literature, Youth Literature, Audience and Youth Audience. Since 2012 it is reduced to grown up literature prizes. The winner gets 25,000 euro and a work of art, the winner of the 100 reader's prize gets 2,500 euro and a MontBlanc pen.
Laureates
1995:
Fiction: Adriaan van Dis - Indische Duinen
Children and youth books: Anne Provoost - Vallen
Non-fiction: Jeroen Brouwers - Vlaamse Leeuwen
1996
Fiction: Guido van Heulendonk - Paarden Zijn Ook Varkens
Children and youth books: Anton Quintana - Het Boek van Bod Pa
Non-fiction: Joris van Parys - Frans Masereel, een biografie
1997
Fiction: A.F.Th. van der Heijden - Het Hof van Barmhartigheid & Onder het Plaveisel het Moeras
Children and youth books: Joke van Leeuwen - Iep!
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Golden Book-Owl” is series of annual Belgian literature prizes for original Dutch-language literary work, awarded from 2016 onwards. From 2012 to 2015 it was called the Gouden Boekenuil. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Golden, Book-Owl and series, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “series of annual Belgian literature prizes for original Dutch-language literary work, awarded from 2016 onwards. From 2012 to 2015 it was called the Gouden Boekenuil” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q111974184. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995, 2012, 2016 and 2000.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Golden Book-Owl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.