The annual awards ceremony is held on March 14, Native Language Day.

The annual awards of the Literary Endowment are granted for the best literary works published during the previous calendar year (excluding dramatic literature, which is awarded every three calendar years, and foreign-language literature, which is awarded every two calendar years) in the following categories:

• prose
  
• poetry
  
• dramaturgy
  
• essays
• dissertation
  
• children's literature
  
• translating Estonian literature
  
• translating literature into Estonian
  
• free - award
  
• Estonian foreign-language literature
  
• translation of philosophical literature into Estonian