Category Awards and prizes

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Awards and prizes, Books, Sách & Tri thức

Helen DeWitt turns down $175k Windham-Campbell prize over promotional requirements

The novelist says she couldn’t accept the award after being told it would entail ‘extensive promotion’

US writer Helen DeWitt has spoken out after being chosen as one of the original eight recipients of this year’s Windham-Campbell writing prizes, worth $175,000 (£130,000) each, but ultimately having to turn down the award because she was unable to participate in the promotional activities that the prize requires.

In a blog and a series of posts on X, the cult author of books including The Last Samurai said that she had been told she had won the award in February, but that receiving the money was “contingent on extensive promotion”, including participating in a festival, a podcast and a six- to eight-hour filming session for a promotional video.

thanhtoong0
April 10, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Gwendoline Riley, Sách & Tri thức

British novelist Gwendoline Riley wins a $175k Windham-Campbell prize

Awarded to writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, other recipients include S Shakthidharan, Adam Ehrlich Sachs and Kei Miller

British novelist Gwendoline Riley is among eight writers set to receive $175,000 (£130,000) each in recognition of their life’s work.

Australian playwright S Shakthidharan, known as Shakthi, is also among those selected for this year’s Windham-Campbell prizes, which award $1.4m annually to writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, with the aim of enabling them to focus on their work free from financial pressures.

thanhtoong0
April 9, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Fiction, Fiction in translation, International Booker prize, Sách & Tri thức

‘Hope, insight and burning humanity’: 2026 International Booker prize shortlist announced

The six finalists include Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuāng-zǐ alongside Daniel Kehlmann’s second nomination for the £50,000 prize

Daniel Kehlmann, Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuāng-zǐ are among the six authors shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker prize, as the award marks its 10th anniversary.

The annual prize celebrates the best works of fiction translated into English, and awards £50,000 to one author-translator pair, to be split equally.

thanhtoong0
March 31, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Booksellers, Children and teenagers, Culture, Picture books, Sách & Tri thức, Waterstones

Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob wins Waterstones children’s book prize

Huw Aaron’s tale of a green blob reading to its child takes overall prize, while Janeen Hayat wins in the young readers category and SF Williamson in the older readers

This year’s Waterstones children’s book prize winner features a green blob tucking its child – a smaller green blob – into bed.

Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob by Huw Aaron is narrated by the parent blob who, through the course of the book, tells the child blob about all the other creatures also getting ready to sleep, including a yeti, Medusa and a Minotaur.

thanhtoong0
March 27, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Fiction, Sách & Tri thức

‘Effortlessly hip’: two novels named joint winners of Queen Mary small press fiction prize

Rebecca Gransden’s Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group and Nell Osborne’s Ghost Driver ‘crossed the line together’ to take award previously known as the Republic of Consciousness prize

Two experimental novels have jointly won the Queen Mary small press fiction prize, formerly known as the Republic of Consciousness prize.

Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group by Rebecca Gransden, published by Tangerine Press, and Ghost Driver by Nell Osborne, published by Moist Books, were announced as this year’s winners during a ceremony held at Queen Mary University, London, on Wednesday evening.

thanhtoong0
March 27, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Poetry, Sách & Tri thức, The Poetry Society

Poem about ‘relentlessness of the news cycle’ wins National Poetry Competition

Judges praised the ‘emotional stakes’ of Partridge Boswell’s poem The Gathering, which took the £5,000 top prize

A poem about language, love, and processing distressing world events has won this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition. The Gathering by Partridge Boswell was picked from more than 21,000 entries by poets in 113 countries.

The poem came from Boswell’s attempt to make sense of global suffering, state violence and war. He describes how he “followed the media for a long while, writing elegies, parodies and rants” to make sense of his “discomfort and disbelief”, and the emotional burden this entails.

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March 26, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, British identity and society, Culture, Sách & Tri thức

First Queen’s reading medal goes to Black British book festival founder Selina Brown

The founder of Europe’s largest celebration of Black literature and champion of inclusive reading becomes Queen Camilla’s inaugural National Reading Hero

Selina Brown has been named the inaugural National Reading Hero recipient of the Queen’s Reading Room medal, a new literary award unveiled by Queen Camilla.

Brown, founder of the Black British book festival, will receive the honour in recognition of her work establishing Europe’s largest celebration of Black literature and bringing inclusive stories into primary schools in areas with low literacy rates.

thanhtoong0
March 26, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Hilary Mantel, Sách & Tri thức

Maggie O’Farrell and fellow judges award inaugural Hilary Mantel prize for fiction

Anna Dempsey’s This Is About an Alligator and Nothing Else, a coming-of-age story set in Florida, took the award, which aims to support unpublished and un-agented writers

Anna Dempsey has been named the winner of the inaugural Hilary Mantel prize for fiction, taking home £7,500 for her unpublished novel This Is About an Alligator and Nothing Else.

The newly established award, launched to honour the legacy of the late Booker prize-winning novelist, aims to support unpublished and un-agented writers across the UK and Ireland.

thanhtoong0
March 24, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Dylan Thomas prize, Sách & Tri thức

Derek Owusu and Seán Hewitt shortlisted for Dylan Thomas prize

Six writers are now finalists for the prestigious annual prize, which awards £20,000 to a writer aged 39 or under

Derek Owusu and Seán Hewitt are among the writers shortlisted for this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize.

Harriet Armstrong, Colwill Brown, Sasha Debevec-McKenney and Suzannah V Evans also made the shortlist for the £20,000 award, which celebrates fiction in any form – including novels, short stories, poetry and drama – by writers aged 39 or under, in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died at that age.

thanhtoong0
March 19, 2026

Awards and prizes, Books, Culture, Fiction, Nero Book Awards, Sách & Tri thức, Sarah Perry

Claire Lynch wins Nero Gold prize for debut about 1980s homophobia

The £30,000 award went to novel A Family Matter, about a lesbian affair and a custody battle

A debut novel exploring the long-term effects of prejudice and secrecy on a lesbian couple in the 1980s has won the Nero Gold prize.

Claire Lynch was presented with the £30,000 award for her book A Family Matter at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening.

thanhtoong0
March 5, 2026