NPR's books desk highlights the Whiting Awards for emerging writers, emphasizing the cash: $50,000 per winner to support work at a stage where time is usually the scarcest resource. These kinds of prizes don't "fix publishing," but they can buy revision cycles, childcare hours, research travel, or just the ability to say no to the worst freelance gigs.
If you're tracking literary infrastructure, Whiting is one of the signals that still treats literature as a long game - less about viral moments, more about keeping writers solvent enough to finish ambitious books.
(Shortened and summarised to avoid devaluing the source)