Guardian First Book Award
Guardian First Book Award issued before 1999 as Guardian Fiction Prize or Guardian Fiction Award is awarded to new writing in fiction and non-fiction.
History
Awarded since 1965 by The Guardian newspaper, the prize is worth £10,000 to the winner. In 1965 the prize money was 200 guineas (£210) and was awarded to a work of fiction by British or Commonwealth writer and published in the UK. The shortlist is announced in November each year and the winner in December. The selection is made by a panel of critics and writers, chaired by the literary editor of the Guardian. This is the oldest and best-established of the awards sponsored by a newspaper. Although sponsorship by one newspaper has a somewhat negative effect on publicity since other newspapers are less willing to publicize the winner. In 1999 the prize was altered to Guardian First Book Award, being no longer restricted to fiction. It is rewarded to the best new literary talent, whether working in the field of fiction or non-fiction and across all genres.[1]
Judging
The process begins with book reviewers from the Guardian recommending a certain number of first books they think worthy of the prize. The books with the most nominations make up the longlist. Then, through adverts placed in the Guardian newspaper, reading groups consisting of members of the general public are assembled. There are eight of these groups, each one comprising eight people, and they meet at various Waterstone's bookshops throughout the UK. After roughly eight weekly meetings in which they discuss the books on the longlist, each group puts forward a list of their five favourite books. The results are collated to produce a list of the five overall favourite books, which is the shortlist. A panel of celebrity judges then decides the winner.
Guardian Fiction Prize winners
- 1965 Clive Barry, Crumb Borne
- 1966 Archie Hind, The Dear Green Place
- 1967 Eva Figes, Winter Journey
- 1968 P. J. Kavanagh, A Song and a Dance
- 1969 Maurice Leitch, Poor Lazarus
- 1970 Margaret Blount, When Did You Last See your Father?
- 1971 Thomas Kilroy, The Big Chapel
- 1972 John Berger, G
- 1973 Peter Redgrove, In the Country of the Skin
- 1974 Beryl Bainbridge, The Bottle Factory Outing
- 1975 Sylvia Clayton, Friends and Romans
- 1976 Robert Nye, Falstaff
- 1977 Michael Moorcock, The Condition of Muzak
- 1978 Neil Jordan, Night in Tunisia
- 1979 Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger
- 1980 J. L. Carr, A Month in the Country
- 1981 John Banville, Kepler
- 1982 Glyn Hughes, Where I Used to Play on the Green
- 1983 Graham Swift, Waterland
- 1984 J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun
- 1985 Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
- 1986 Jim Crace, Continent
- 1987 Peter Benson, The Levels
- 1988 Lucy Ellmann, Sweet Desserts
- 1989 Carol Lake, Rosehill: Portrait from a Midlands City
- 1990 Pauline Melville, Shape-Shifter
- 1991 Alan Judd, The Devil's Own Work
- 1992 Alasdair Gray, Poor Things
- 1993 Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door
- 1994 Candia McWilliam, Debatable Land
- 1995 James Buchan, Heart's Journey in Winter
- 1996 Seamus Deane, Reading in the Dark
- 1997 Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
- 1998 Jackie Kay, Trumpet
Guardian First Book Award winners and shortlisted books
- 1999 Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
- 2000 Zadie Smith, White Teeth
- 2001 Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, graphic novel
- Miranda Carter, Anthony Blunt: His Lives biography
- David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Wittgenstein's Poker, non-fiction
- Glen David Gold, Carter Beats The Devil, fiction
- Rachel Seiffert, The Dark Room, fiction
- 2002 Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated
- Alexandra Fuller, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
- Hari Kunzru, The Impressionist
- Oliver Morton, Mapping Mars
- Sandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done
- 2003 Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind
- 2004 Armand Marie Leroi, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body
- Matthew Hollis, Ground Water (Bloodaxe)
- David Bezmozgis Natasha and Other Stories (Cape)
- Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Bloomsbury)
- Rory Stewart The Places in Between, by (Picador)
- 2005 Alexander Masters, Stuart: A Life Backwards
- Reza Aslan, No god but God
- Richard Benson, The Farm
- Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
- Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Sightseeing
- 2006 Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
- Lorraine Adams, Harbor
- Clare Allan, Poppy Shakespeare
- Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men
- Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
- 2007
- Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
- Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City
- Rosemary Hill, God's Architect
- Dinaw Mengestu , Children of the Revolution
- Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost