The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or
Guardian Fiction Prize
The Guardian Fiction Prize was a literary award sponsored by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Founded in 1965, it recognized one fiction book per year written by a British or Commonwealth writer and published in the United Kingdom. The award ran for 33 ...
that the newspaper had sponsored from 1965.
[ The Guardian First Book Award was discontinued in 2016, with the 2015 awards being the last.
]
History
The newspaper determined to change its book award after 1998, and during that year also hired Claire Armitstead
Claire Armitstead is a British journalist and author. She is Associate Editor (Culture) at ''The Guardian'', where she has worked since 1992. She is also a cultural commentator on literature and the arts, and makes appearances on radio and televi ...
as literary editor. At the inaugural First Book Award ceremony in 1999, she said that she was informed of the change, details to be arranged, by the head of the marketing department during her second week on the job. "By the time we left the room we had decided on two key things. We would make it a first book award, and we would involve reading groups in the judging process. This was going to be the people's prize."[ About the opening of the prize to nonfiction she had said in August, "readers do not segregate their reading into fiction or non-fiction, so neither should we."][ There was no restriction on genre; for example, both poetry and travel would be included in principle,][ and so would self-published autobiographies.][
For the first rendition, 140 books were submitted, including a lot of nonfiction strongest "by far" in "a hybrid of travel-writing and reportage"; weak in science and biography. Experts led by Armitstead selected a longlist of 11 and Borders book stores in ]Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
and Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
hosted reading groups that considered one book a week, September to November, and selected a shortlist of six. A panel of eight judges including two ''Guardian'' editors chose the winner.[ The newspaper called it "the first time the ordinary reading public have been involved in the selection of a major literary prize." In the event, the 1999 reading groups selected a shortlist including six novels, and all four groups favoured the novel ''Ghostwritten'' by David Mitchell. Their second favourite was one of the travelogue and reporting hybrids, by ]Philip Gourevitch
Philip Gourevitch (born 1961), an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and a former editor of ''The Paris Review''.
His most recent book is '' The Ballad of Abu Ghraib'' (2008), an account of Iraq's ...
of ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.[ The judges chose the latter, '''' —"a horrifying but humane account of the ]Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
, its causes and consequences", the newspaper called it in August.[
The prize was worth £10,000 to the winner. Eligible titles were published in English, and in the UK within the calendar year.][
]
Winners and shortlists
Source:
Blue ribbon () = winner
;1999
* Philip Gourevitch
Philip Gourevitch (born 1961), an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and a former editor of ''The Paris Review''.
His most recent book is '' The Ballad of Abu Ghraib'' (2008), an account of Iraq's ...
, '''', a hybrid of journalism and travelogue about the Rwandan genocide
* Daren King, '' Boxy an Star'', a drugs fantasy written in a beautifully sustained argot
* David Mitchell, ''Ghostwritten
''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel published by English author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, B ...
'', a patchwork of stories from all corners of the world
* Raj Kamal Jha
Raj Kamal Jha (born 1966) is an Indian newspaper editor and novelist writing in English. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of ''The Indian Express''. He has written five novels that have been translated into more than 12 languages. His ...
, ''The Blue Bedspread
The Blue Bedspread is the 1999 first novel by Indian writer Raj Kamal Jha.
In the novel an old man sits up all night in Kolkata, Calcutta writing for his dead older sister's newborn child, who is sleeping in the next room and will be taken the ne ...
'', a chamber tragedy by Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
-based author
* Gary Younge
Gary Andrew Younge , (born January 1969) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointe ...
, ''No Place Like Home'', account of his soul-searching journey from Stevenage
Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...
to the deep South
* Bella Bathurst, ''Lighthouse Stevensons'', the story of Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
's lighthouse-building ancestors
;2000
* Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...
, ''White Teeth
''White Teeth'' is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London. The novel centres on Britain' ...
'', novel
* Mark Z. Danielewski, ''House of Leaves
''House of Leaves'' is the debut novel by American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published in March 2000 by Pantheon Books. A bestseller, it has been translated into a number of languages, and is followed by a companion piece, '' The Whalestoe Le ...
'', novel
* Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...
, ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'' is a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000. It chronicles his stewardship of his younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents.
The book was a commerc ...
'', memoir
* Naomi Klein
Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...
, ''No Logo
''No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies'' is a book by the Canadian author Naomi Klein. First published by Knopf Canada and Picador in December 1999, shortly after the 1999 Seattle WTO protests had generated media attention around such issues ...
'', politics
* Andrew X. Pham, ''Catfish and Mandala: a Vietnamese Odyssey'', travelogue
;2001
* Chris Ware
Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his ''Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (2012 ...
, '' Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'', graphic novel
* Miranda Carter
Miranda Carter (born 1965) is an English historian, writer and biographer who also publishes fiction under the name MJ Carter.Jake Kerridge ''The Telegraph'', 23 April 2015.
Education
Carter was educated at St Paul's Girls School and Exeter Col ...
, ''Anthony Blunt: His Lives'', biography
* David Edmonds and John Eidinow Fra' John Eidinow is the Presiding Fellow at St. Benet's Hall, Oxford, a barrister, and a Knight of Justice of the Order of Malta.
Early life
Eidinow was born and raised in London.
Academic career
Eidinow read Classics at Merton College, Oxford ...
, '' Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers'', non-fiction
* Glen David Gold
Glen David Gold (born 1964) is an American novelist, memoirist and screenwriter. Known for his bestselling novels exploring the roles of entertainment and popular culture in historical America, he has also published a critically acclaimed memoir ...
, ''Carter Beats The Devil
''Carter Beats The Devil'' is a historical mystery thriller novel by Glen David Gold centred on the American stage magician Charles Joseph Carter (1874–1936).
Novel's title
The title of the novel comes from Carter's evening length stage show, t ...
'', fiction
* Rachel Seiffert
Rachel Seiffert (born 1971) is a British novelist and short story writer.
Biography
She was born in 1971 in Oxford to German and Australian parents, and was brought up bilingually. She lives in London.
Publications and awards
Seiffert has p ...
, '' The Dark Room'', fiction
;2002
* Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), '' Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fiction works ''Eatin ...
, ''Everything Is Illuminated
''Everything Is Illuminated'' is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.
The book's writing and structure recei ...
''
*Alexandra Fuller
Alexandra Fuller (born in 1969 in Glossop, England) is a British- Rhodesian author. Her articles and reviews have appeared in ''The New Yorker'', '' National Geographic'', ''Granta'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Financ ...
, '' Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight''
*Hari Kunzru
Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels '' The Impressionist'', '' Transmission'', ''My Revolutions'', ''Gods Without Men'', ''White Tears''David Robinson"Interview: Hari Kunzru, a ...
, '' The Impressionist''
*Oliver Morton
Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton (August 4, 1823 – November 1, 1877), commonly known as Oliver P. Morton, was a U.S. Republican Party politician from Indiana. He served as the 14th governor (the first native-born) of Indiana during the Amer ...
, ''Mapping Mars''
*Sandra Newman
Sandra Newman (born November 6, 1965, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American writer. She has a BA from Polytechnic of Central London, and an MA from the University of East Anglia.
Newman's first novel, ''The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever D ...
, ''The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done''
;2003
* Robert Macfarlane, '' Mountains of the Mind''
*Monica Ali
Monica Ali FRSL (born 20 October 1967) is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English heritage. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by ''Granta'' magazine based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut nove ...
, ''Brick Lane
Brick Lane (Bengali: ব্রিক লেন) is a street in the East End of London, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest ...
''
*DBC Pierre
Peter Warren Finlay (born in 1961), also known as DBC Pierre, is an Australian author who wrote the novel '' Vernon God Little''.
Pierre was born in South Australia, and largely raised in Mexico. He has resided in the Republic of Ireland and ...
, ''Vernon God Little
''Vernon God Little'' (2003) is a novel by DBC Pierre. It was his debut novel and won the Man Booker Prize in 2003. It has twice been adapted as a stage play.
Plot synopsis
The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, T ...
''
* Paul Broks, ''Into the Silent Land''
*Anna Funder
Anna Funder (born 1966) is an Australian author. She is the author of '' Stasiland'' and '' All That I Am'' and the novella ''The Girl With the Dogs''.
Life
Funder went to primary school in Melbourne and Paris; she attended Star of the Sea Co ...
, ''Stasiland
''Stasiland'' by Anna Funder is a book first published in Australia by Text Publishing in 2002 about individuals who resisted the East German regime, and others who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. It tells the story of what it was like to ...
''
;2004
* Armand Marie Leroi
Armand Marie Leroi (born 16 July 1964) is a New Zealand-born Dutch author, broadcaster, and professor of evolutionary developmental biology at Imperial College in London. He received the Guardian First Book Award in 2004 for his book ''Mutant ...
, ''Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body''
*Matthew Hollis
Matthew Hollis (born 1971) is an English people, English author, editor, professor, and poet, currently living in London, England.
Career and background
He was born in Norwich, the son of Patricia Hollis, Baroness Hollis of Heigham, politician ...
, ''Ground Water''
*David Bezmozgis
David Bezmozgis ( lv, Dāvids Bezmozgis; born 1973) is a Canadian writer and filmmaker, currently the head of Humber College's School for Writers.
Life and career
Educational background
Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to Canada with his family ...
'' Natasha and Other Stories''
*Susanna Clarke
Susanna Mary Clarke (born 1 November 1959) is an English author known for her debut novel ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began ''Jonathan Strange'' in 1993 and worked on it during her ...
, ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed i ...
''
*Rory Stewart
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (born 3 January 1973) is a British academic, diplomat, author, broadcaster, former soldier and former politician. He is the president of GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for G ...
, ''The Places in Between
''The Places in Between'' is a travel narrative by Rory Stewart, a British writer and former diplomat, and future member of Parliament, detailing his solo walk across north-central Afghanistan in 2002.
Synopsis
Stewart arrives in Afghanistan ...
''
;2005
* Alexander Masters
Alexander Wright Masters is an English author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Masters is the son of authors Dexter Masters and Joan Brady. He was educated at Bedales School, and took a first ...
, '' Stuart: A Life Backwards''
* Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan ( fa, رضا اصلان, ; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology of religion, writer, and television host. A convert to evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam b ...
, '' No god but God''
* Richard Benson, ''The Farm''
* Suketu Mehta
Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of ''Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'', which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Pri ...
, '' Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found''
* Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Rattawut Lapcharoensap ( th, รัฐวุฒิ ลาภเจริญทรัพย์; IPA:; born 1979) is a Thai American short story writer. He is best known for ''Sightseeing'', a collection of short stories published in 2005. The film ...
, ''Sightseeing''
;2006
* Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li (born November 4, 1972) is a Chinese-born writer and professor in the United States. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for ''A Thousand Years of Good Pra ...
, ''A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
''A Thousand Years of Good Prayers'' is a 2007 American drama film directed by Wayne Wang and starring Faye Yu, Henry O, Vida Ghahremani and Pasha D. Lychnikoff. It is adapted from the short story by Yiyun Li and shot on a high-end high-def ...
''
* Lorraine Adams
Lorraine Adams is an American journalist and novelist. As a journalist, she is known as a contributor to the '' New York Times Book Review'', and a former contributor to ''The Washington Post''. As a novelist, she is known for the award-winning '' ...
, ''Harbor''
* Clare Allan, '' Poppy Shakespeare''
* Hisham Matar
Hisham Matar ( ar, هشام مطر) (born 1970) is an American born British-Libyan writer. His memoir of the search for his father, '' The Return'', won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 2017 PEN America Jean Stein B ...
, ''In the Country of Men
''In the Country of Men'' is the debut novel of writer Hisham Matar, first published in 2006 by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books. It was nominated for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. It has so far been translated ...
''
* Carrie Tiffany
Carrie Tiffany (born 1965) is an English-born Australian novelist and former park ranger.
Biography
Tiffany was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and migrated to Australia with her family in the early 1970s. She grew up in Perth, Western Australi ...
, '' Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living''
;2007
* Dinaw Mengestu, '' Children of the Revolution''
* Tahmima Anam, '' A Golden Age''
*Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an American journalist. He is a senior correspondent and associate editor at ''The Washington Post'', where he has worked since 1994.
Life
He grew up mostly in the San Francisco Bay area. He attended Stanford University, w ...
, ''Imperial Life in the Emerald City
''Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone'' is a 2006 book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
Synopsis
''Imperial Life in the Emerald City'' takes a critical look at the civilian leadership of the American reconstruction project in Ira ...
''
*Rosemary Hill
Rosemary Hill (born 10 April 1957) is an English writer and historian.
Life
Hill has published widely on 19th- and 20th-century cultural history, but she is best known for ''God's Architect'' (2007), her biography of Augustus Pugin. The book won ...
, ''God's Architect''
*Catherine O'Flynn
Catherine O'Flynn (born 1970) is a British writer. She has published three novels for adults, and two for children as well as various articles and short stories. Her debut novel, '' What Was Lost'', won the prestigious first novel prize at the Cos ...
, ''What Was Lost
''What Was Lost'' is the 2007 début novel by Catherine O'Flynn. The novel is about a girl who goes missing in a shopping centre in 1984, and the people who try to discover what happened to her twenty years later. ''What Was Lost'' won the First ...
''
;2008
* Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...
, '' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century''
* Mohammed Hanif, ''A Case of Exploding Mangoes
''A Case of Exploding Mangoes'' (2008)
is a comic novel by the Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif based on the 1988 plane crash that killed General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, former president of Pakistan. The book received generally positive reviews f ...
''
*Owen Matthews
Owen Matthews (born December 1971) is a British writer, historian and journalist. His first book, ''Stalin's Children'', was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and France's Prix Médicis E ...
, ''Stalin's Children''
*, ''God's Own Country''
* Steve Toltz, ''A Fraction of the Whole
''Fraction of the Whole'' is a 2008 novel by Steve Toltz. It follows three generations of the eccentric Dean family in Australia and the people who surround them.
Characters
Jasper Dean
Jasper Dean is Martin Dean's illegitimate son and Terry D ...
''
;2009
* Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by ''Brittle Paper''. In 2017 she had a DAAD Arti ...
, ''An Elegy for Easterly''
*Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton (born 24 September 1985) is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International In ...
, '' The Rehearsal''
* Samantha Harvey, ''The Wilderness''
*Reif Larsen
Reif Larsen (born 1980) is an American author, known for ''The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'', for which '' Vanity Fair'' claimed Larsen received just under a million dollars as an advance from Penguin Press following a bidding war between ten pu ...
, ''The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
''The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet'' is the debut novel by American author Reif Larsen, first published in 2009. The book follows the exploits of a 12-year-old mapmaker named T.S. Spivet, who lives on a ranch near Divide, Montana, as he receives ...
''
*Michael Peel
Michael Peel is a British journalist. He has written for various publications including ''Granta'', '' New Republic'', ''New Statesman'' and ''London Review of Books''. He is currently Europe correspondent of the ''Financial Times''.
Biography
...
, ''A Swamp Full of Dollars''
;2010
* Alexandra Harris
Alexandra Harris (born 1981) is a British writer and academic. From 2007 to 2017, Harris was a professor in English at the University of Liverpool.
In autumn 2017 Harris took up the post of Professorial Fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Har ...
, ''Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper''
*Nadifa Mohamed
Nadifa Mohamed ( so, Nadiifa Maxamed, ar, نظيفة محمد) (born 1981) is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on ''Granta'' magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged u ...
, '' Black Mamba Boy''
*Ned Beauman
Ned Beauman (born 1985) is a British novelist, journalist and screenwriter. The author of five novels, he was selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists by ''Granta'' magazine in 2013.
Biography
Born in London, Beauman is the son of ...
, '' Boxer, Beetle''
*Maile Chapman
Maile Chapman is an American novelist and short story writer.
Chapman was born in Tacoma, Washington, and has a BA from The Evergreen State College and an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. She is currently a PhD candidate and Schaeffer Fe ...
, ''Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto''
*Kathryn Schulz
Kathryn Schulz is an American journalist and author. She is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her article on the risk of a major earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.
B ...
, ''In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error''
;2011
* Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee (born 21 July 1970) is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'', that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pu ...
, '' The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer''
*Stephen Kelman
Stephen Kelman (born 1976) is an English novelist, who grew up on Marsh Farm council estate in Luton. He studied marketing at the University of Bedfordshire,[Juan Pablo Villalobos
Juan Pablo Villalobos (born 1973) is a Mexican author.
His debut novel, ''Down the Rabbit Hole'', was published by And Other Stories in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011. He is also the author of ''Quesadillas'' ( ...]
, ''Down The Rabbit Hole''
*Mirza Waheed
Mirza Waheed is a novelist who was born and raised in Srinagar but now lives in London.
Writing career
Mirza has written for the BBC, The Guardian, Granta, Guernica (magazine), Al Jazeera English and The New York Times.
His first novel, '' ...
, '' The Collaborator''
* Amy Waldman, ''The Submission''
;2012
* Kevin Powers
Kevin Powers (born July 11, 1980) is an American fiction writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran.
Biography
Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, the son of a factory worker and a postman, and enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of seve ...
, ''The Yellow Birds
''The Yellow Birds'' is the debut novel from American writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers. It was one of ''The New York Timess 100 Most Notable Books of 2012 and a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. It was awarded the 2012 The ...
''
* Kerry Hudson, ''Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma''
*Chad Harbach
Chad Harbach (born 1975) is an American writer. An editor at the journal '' n + 1'', he is the author of the 2011 novel '' The Art of Fielding''.
Early life and education
Harbach grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. His father was an accountant and his ...
, '' The Art of Fielding''
*Lindsey Hilsum
Lindsey Hilsum (born 3 August 1958) is an English television journalist and writer. She is the International Editor for ''Channel 4 News'', and a regular contributor to ''The Sunday Times'', ''The Observer'', ''The Guardian'', ''New Statesman'' ...
, ''Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution''
*Katherine Boo
Katherine "Kate" J. Boo (born August 12, 1964) is an American investigative journalist who has documented the lives of people in poverty. She has won the MacArthur "genius" award (2002) and the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), and her wo ...
, '' Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity''
;2013
* Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan (born 1976) is an Irish people, Irish writer. He has published six novels and one short story collection. In 2016, novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry described Ryan in The Guardian, ''The Guardian'' newspaper as "the king of the n ...
, '' The Spinning Heart''
*NoViolet Bulawayo
NoViolet Bulawayo is the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele (born 12 October 1981), a Zimbabwean author. In 2012, the National Book Foundation named her a "5 under 35" honoree. She was named one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by ''New ...
, ''We Need New Names
''We Need New Names'' is the 2013 debut novel of expatriate Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo. A coming-of-age story, ''We Need New Names'' tells of the life of a young girl named Darling, first as a 10-year-old in Zimbabwe, navigating a world o ...
''
*Shereen El Feki
Shereen El Feki ( ar, شيرين الفقي; born 1967 or 1968) is a British journalist and author, most notable for her book ''Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World''.
Biography
El Feki was born in Great Britain to a Wels ...
, ''Sex and the Citadel''
*Hannah Kent
Hannah Kent (born 1985) is an Australian writer, known for two novels – ''Burial Rites'' (2013) and ''The Good People'' (2016). Her third novel, ''Devotion'', was published in 2021.
Early life and education
Kent was born in 1985 grew up in t ...
, ''Burial Rites
''Burial Rites'' (2013) is a novel by Australian author Hannah Kent, based on a true story.
Background
Kent was given inspiration to write Burial Rites during her time as an exchange student in Iceland when she was 17, where she learnt the s ...
''
* Lottie Moggach, ''Kiss Me First''
;2014
* Colin Barrett, ''Young Skins'' (story collection)
* Henry Marsh, ''Do No Harm'' (memoir)
*Fiona McFarlane
Fiona McFarlane (born 1978) is an Australian author, best known for her book ''The Night Guest'' and her collection of short stories ''The High Places''. She is a recipient of the Voss Literary Prize, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing a ...
, ''The Night Guest'' (novel)
*Evan Osnos, ''Age of Ambition'' (journalism)
*May-Lan Tan, ''Things to Make and Break'' (story collection)
;2015
* Andrew McMillan, ''Physical''
*Diane Cook
Diane Marie Cook is an American writer currently based in New York. Her debut novel, ''The New Wilderness'' (2020), was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.
Biography and career
After studying and writing fiction at university, Cook attend ...
, ''Man v Nature''
*Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma (born 1986) is a Nigerian writer. He is best known for writing the novels ''The Fishermen'' (2015) and ''An Orchestra of Minorities'' (2019), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in their respective years of public ...
, ''The Fishermen''
*Peter Pomerantsev
Peter Pomerantsev (; born Pyotr Igorevich Pomerantsev, russian: Пётр Игоревич Померанцев, label=none; born 1977) is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global ...
, '' Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible''
* Max Porter, ''Grief Is the Thing With Feathers''
* Sara Taylor, ''The Shore''
See also
* Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author ...
* Orange Award for New Writers
The Orange Award for New Writers was a prize given by telecommunications company Orange between 2006 and 2010. It was launched to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Orange Prize for Fiction. The award was supported by Arts Council England ...
* The Whitfield Prize
The Whitfield Prize (or Whitfield Book Prize) is a prize of £1,000 awarded annually by the Royal Historical Society to the best work on a subject of British or Irish history published within the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland during the cal ...
* Guardian Fiction Prize
The Guardian Fiction Prize was a literary award sponsored by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Founded in 1965, it recognized one fiction book per year written by a British or Commonwealth writer and published in the United Kingdom. The award ran for 33 ...
* Vanguard Personality of the Year Awards
References
;Annual home pages for the First Book Award, 1999 to present
Guardian First Book Award 1999
Guardian First Book award 2008
Guardian First Book award 2009
Guardian First Book award 2010
Guardian First Book award 2011
Guardian First Book award 2012
Guardian First Book award 2013
Guardian First Book award 2014
Guardian First Book award 2015
{{colend
External links
Books
at ''theguardian''
British literary awards
First Book Award
Literary awards by magazines and newspapers
First book awards
Awards established in 1999
Awards disestablished in 1999
1999 establishments in the United Kingdom
2016 disestablishments in the United Kingdom