# Paul Harland Prize

The Harland Prize is the oldest annual award for original Dutch short science fiction, fantasy or horror stories. It was originally called the King Kong Award, than the Millennium Award, than it was renamed after Dutch science fiction author Paul Harland, who died in 2003, and later on it was renamed again to Harland Award.
This award is for short stories and novelettes, but the word count changed sometimes.

## History

The award was presented for the first time in 1976 by SF fan and critic Rob Vooren, on the occasion of a short story contest which had been organised that same year. Initially, Vooren called it the King Kong Award, and also published an irregular fanzine with the same name.
Over the next ten years, the contest was mostly organised by Rob Vooren, who not only assembled the jury, but also ensured availability of the prize money (usually 1000 guilders), and later enlisted the help of a publisher. In 1984 this finally resulted in professional publication for the award winners.
In 1987 Rob Vooren handed over the organisation for the last time, to a rotating committee. For reasons of credibility, and with a view to attracting more sponsors, it was decided in 1996 to change the name to Millennium Prize. Following the death of Paul Harland, who had not only won the award several times, but had also organised it, in addition to being on the jury more often than almost anyone else, the prize was given his name in 2003.
In 2011 the Prize was organized by author Martijn Lindeboom, who in 2013 collaborated on it with author Thomas Olde Heuvelt. In 2016, authors Floris Kleijne and Esther Scherpenisse organized the award. In 2017, the Harland Awards were organized for the first time by a four-headed organization consisting of Mariska Reniers, Freya Sixma, Jorrit de Klerk and Yarrid Dhooghe.
In 2013, there was a record number of entries, 206 stories (totaling some 1.3 million words), in the following years the number of entries stabilized around 200. In 2015, the writing competition was renamed Harland Awards and the novel prize was briefly added. The first Harland Awards Novel Prize was won by Auke Hulst with his science fiction novel Sleep Softly, Johnny Idaho. In 2023, the prize was again renamed and is now called the 'Harland Prize'.

## Winning authors

| Edition | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth |
| 1976 | Bert Vos | | | | |
| 1977 | Peter Cuijpers | Guido Eekhaut | Annemarie van Ewijck | Eddy C. Bertin | Martin Berkelaar |
| 1978 | Wim Burkunk | Wim Burkunk | Peter Cuijpers | Eddy C. Bertin | Kathinka Lannoy |
| 1979 | Tais Teng | Robert Smets | Frank Frankhuizen | Luuk Simonis | Eddy C. Bertin |
| 1980 | Bert Vos | Peter Cuijpers | Rob Zaagman | Sophie van der Waaij | Eddy C. Bertin / Frank Visser |
| 1981 | <not granted> | Sophie van der Waaij | Jan Bee Landman | | |
| 1983 | Gert and Jan J.B. Kuipers | Peter Cuijpers | Paul Harland / Tais Teng | | Reinold Widemann |
| 1984 | Paul Harland and Tais Teng / Peter Cuijpers | | Paul Harland | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Gerben Hellinga jr |
| 1985 | Gerben Hellinga, Jr. / Tais Teng | | Tais Teng | Gerben Hellinga, Jr. | Jan J.B. Kuipers |
| 1986 | Thomas Wintner | Jan Bee Landman | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Guido Eekhaut | Jan J.B. Kuipers |
| 1987 | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Jannelies Smit & Paul Harland | Eddy C. Bertin | Antony den Ridder | Guido Eekhaut / Jan Bee Landman |
| 1988 | Paul Evenblij | Thomas Cool | Gerben Hellinga Jr | Peter Cuijpers | Rijna Elijzen |
| 1989 | Tais Teng | Julien C. Raasveld | Jan Bee Landman and Paul Harland | Peter Cuijpers | Jan J.B. Kuipers |
| 1990 | Paul Harland | Jan Bee Landman | Thomas Wintner | Gerben Hellinga Jr | Jan J. B. Kuipers |
| 1991 | Peter Cuijpers | Jan J. B. Kuipers | Martin Berkelaar | Gerben Hellinga Jr | Peter Cuijpers |
| 1992 | Mike Jansen and Paul Harland | Paul van Leeuwenkamp | Jaap Boekestein | Nico Stikker | Geeske M. Kruseman / Paul van Leeuwenkamp |
| 1994 | Nico Stikker | Peter Cuijpers | Vincent Hoberg | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Tony de Haan |
| 1995 | Paul Harland and Vincent Hoberg | Jan J. B. Kuipers | Paul van Leeuwenkamp | Martijn Kregting | Dirk Bontes |
| 1996 | Dirk Bontes | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Mark J. Ruyffelaert | Frank van Dongen | Martijn Kregting |
| 1997 | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Bart van Geldrop | Paul Evenblij | Gerben Hellinga Jr | Nico Stikker |
| 1998 | Henri Achten | Richard Meijer | Marcel Orie | Henri Achten | Jay Hill |
| 1999 | Sophia Drenth | Mirjam Gielen | Sophia Drenth | Cor Oosting | Diana van der Pluijm |
| 2000 | Anne-Claire Verham | Chris Braga / Jan J.B. Kuipers | | Anne-Claire Verham | Mirjam Gielen |
| 2001 | Paul Evenblij | Dirk Bontes | Chris Braga | Mirjam Gielen | Chris Braga |
| 2002 | Dirk Bontes | Peter Kaptein | Robert Tetteroo | Jurgen Appelo / Marco Knauff | |
| 2003 | Jaap Boekestein | Martijn Kregting | Jaap Boekestein | Marco Knauff | Auke Pols |
| 2004 | Christien Boomsma | Chris Braga | Katrien Rutten | Sarah de Waard | Thomas Olde Heuvelt |
| 2005 | Auke Pols | Esther Scherpenisse | Thomas Olde Heuvelt | Sarah de Waard | Mark Bartels |
| 2006 | Christien Boomsma | Fred Rabouw | Jan J.B. Kuipers | Claudia van Arkel | Jenny Hoogeboom |
| 2007 | Wim Stolk | Anne Witberg | Martijn Lindeboom | Jaap Boekestein | Esther Scherpenisse |
| 2008 | Boukje Balder | Fred Rabouw | Rianne Lampers | Anne Witberg | Fred Rabouw |
| 2009 | Thomas Olde Heuvelt | Django Mathijsen | Fred van der Meulen | Jos Lexmond | Fred Rabouw |
| 2010 | Kurt Forel | Martijn Kregting | Patrick Brannigan | Boukje Balder / Frank Norbert Rieter | |
| 2011 | Boukje Balder | Freek de Bruin | Patrick Brannigan | Pieter Van de Walle | Anaïd Haen |
| 2012 | Thomas Olde Heuvelt | Linda Mulders | Jürgen Snoeren | Ben Adriaanse | Auke Pols |
| 2013 | Esther Scherpenisse | Saskia van Oostenrijk | Peter Kaptein | Olga Ponjee | Fred Rabouw and Johan Zonnenberg |
| 2021 | Gerthein Boersma | Jan van Gorkum | Marius van Bruggen | | |