The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize 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 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 in

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and

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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 of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''. The judges chose the latter, '' We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families'' —"a horrifying but humane account of the

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, 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 finalists

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
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External links

Books
at ''

'' British literary awards First Book Award Literary awards by magazines and newspapers First book awards Awards established in 1999 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom Awards disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

History

Winners and finalists

See also

References

External links