The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre International in Berlin, and is organized by the Foundation Lettre International Award, a joint partnership between Lettre International and the Aventis Foundation. The Goethe-Institut also cooperates with the project.
A polyglot jury of experienced writers representing eleven of the major linguistic regions of the world seeks the best international texts in the genre and decides on a shortlist of seven, eventually choosing three winners from among them. The members of the jury are appointed by the organizer. In addition, an advisory committee of distinguished writers lends its moral and intellectual backing to the Lettre Ulysses Award. Members of the committee have included Günter Grass, the German writer and winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Polish reportage author Ryszard Kapuściński, the French ethnologist Jean Malaurie, and the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich.
The Lettre Ulysses Award is the first world prize in the reportage genre.
The initiative ended in 2007, after the contract between the Foundation Lettre International Award and the Aventis Foundation ended and the foundation did not succeed in finding a new partner.[1]