• Tom Newlands’ Only Here, Only Now receives two nominations – the only title to do so.
• Other nominees include Matt Haig, David Nicholls, Elif Shafak, and Ali Smith.

The Society of Authors (SoA) has announced shortlists for the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, the Betty Trask Prize, the Queen’s Knickers Award, the McKitterick Prize, the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize, and the books celebrated by the ADCI Literary Prize.

The winners will be announced on Wednesday 18 June at Southwark Cathedral and will share a prize fund of over £170,000. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Helen Epega and keynote speaker Joseph Coelho, with words of introduction by Management Committee Chair, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, and a video welcome from The Very Reverend Dr Mark Oakley. Tickets to the in-person event can be purchased here. The event will be livestreamed. Online attendance is free with RSVP available via this link.

Winners of the Travelling Scholarships, Cholmondeley Awards, Eric Gregory Awards and Somerset Maugham Awards will also be announced on the night.

Chair of the SoA Board (Management Committee), Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, said:

‘The SoA Awards truly demonstrate the breadth and height of author voices both nationally and internationally. We are delighted to be able to showcase the richness of talent across so many genre areas and are thrilled each year with the reach of submissions.  As authors we understand what these books represent and the SoA Awards are a rare opportunity to celebrate and reward the work of a huge range of talent.’

Donate to our Society of Authors Access Fund by buying any of our shortlisted books from Bookshop.org.

ADCI Literary Prize

Sponsored by Arts Council England, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), the Drusilla Harvey Memorial Fund, and the Professional Writing Academy, the ADCI Literary Prize is awarded to a disabled or chronically ill writer, for an outstanding novel containing a disabled or chronically ill character or characters.

Judged by Dr. Pragya Agarwal, Penny Batchelor, James Catchpole, Rachel Charlton-Dailey, Linda Corbett, Selina Mills and Okechukwu Nzelu.

• Victoria Hawthorne for The Darkest Night (Quercus)
• Helen Heckety for Alter Ego (Dialogue, Renegade Books)
• Tom Newlands for Only Here, Only Now (Phoenix, The Orion Publishing Group)

Judge Penny Batchelor said:

‘This year’s shortlisted books all have powerful plots that pack a punch, immersing the reader in finely-crafted worlds and situations that can shock, cause the shedding of tears, an out loud belly laugh, or silent recognition of solidarity with their multifaceted characters. Covering historical, literary and contemporary fiction, there’s something on the shortlist for any reader who wants to eschew outmoded disability stereotypes and engage with powerful stories showing the realities of living a disabled life.’

Total prize fund: £2,000

ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award

Sponsored by ALCS and Hawthornden Foundation, the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award is awarded for a short story by a writer who has had at least one short story accepted for publication.

Judged by Andre Bagoo, Louise Brealey, Peter Hobbs and Yan Ge.

• Molly Aitken for ‘This is How it Happens’
• Naomi Alderman for ‘God’s Doorbell’
• Daisy Fletcher for ‘The Triangle’
• Hamish Gray for ‘But the fire will spit again’
• Katie Hale for ‘Raise, or How to Break Free of the Ground, or The Lakeland Dialect for Slippery is Slape and to Form it in the Mouth Requires an Act of Falling’
• Somto Ihezue for ‘Into Duty, Into Longing, Into Sparrows’ (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Judge Andre Bagoo said:

‘The stories on this year’s shortlist share a flair for language alongside a willingness to take risks. Each is built around the kernel of the sentence, but achieves a cohesiveness that yields deep emotion, often in service of profound ideas. Incantatory, spell-binding and resonant, they linger on the mind. We are delighted to share them.’

Total prize fund: £5,000

Betty Trask Prize

The Betty Trask Prize is presented for a first novel by a writer under 35.

Judged by Andrew Cowan, Daisy Lafarge and Stephanie Sy-Quia.

• Bonnie Burke-Patel for I Died at Fallow Hall (Bedford Square Publishers)
• Madeline Docherty for Gender Theory (John Murray)
• Genevieve Jagger for Fragile Animals (404 Ink)
• Ashani Lewis for Winter Animals (Dialogue Books)
• Elizabeth O’Connor for Whale Fall (Pan Macmillan, Picador)
• Nicolas Padamsee for England is Mine (Profile Books, Serpent’s Tail)

Judge Andrew Cowan said:

‘Whether politically urgent, exquisitely lyrical, or strange and surreal; whether expansive or economical, comic or introspective, set now or in the past, each of these skilful novels is brimming with wit and invention. Together they demonstrate the wonderfully open-ended possibilities for the contemporary novel.’

Total prize fund: £26,200

Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize

The Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize is awarded to a UK or Irish writer, or a writer currently resident in those countries, for a novel focusing on the experience of travel away from home. In memory of Malcolm Lowry and endowed by Gordon Bowker, his biographer, and Ramdei Bowker.

Judged by Dr. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Derek Owusu and Jini Reddy.

• Matt Haig for The Life Impossible (Canongate Books)
• Jo Hamya for The Hypocrite (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion)
• Hisham Matar for My Friends (Viking, Penguin Random House)
• David Nicholls for You Are Here (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)
• Elif Shafak for There are Rivers in the Sky (Viking, Penguin Random House)
• Ali Smith for Gliff (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)

Judge Jini Reddy said:

‘The books on this year’s Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist transport the reader to worlds perilous, political, speculative and amorous. Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky begins in ancient Mesopotamia and is a wondrous riverine odyssey.  Set in London and Libya, My Friends by Hisham Matar offers a profound meditation on the pain of exile and the salve of friendship. In the immaculately crafted The Hypocrite, the fuse for a generational feud is lit on an Aeolian island. Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible enchants on a boundary-transcending journey through Ibiza. The dystopian near-future Britain-set Gliff by Ali Smith movingly articulates the courage that resistance demands of us. And in David Nicholls’ witty and touching You Are Here, a pas-de-deux between two lonely hikers unfolds across the Lake District.  These six titles deserve to be savoured for their arresting world views, evocations of resilience and glorious, immersive storytelling.’

Total prize fund: £2,750

McKitterick Prize

Sponsored by Hawthornden Foundation, the McKitterick Prize is awarded for a first novel by a writer over 40.

Judged by Rebecca Foster, Gonzalo C. Garcia, Anietie Isong, Wenyan Lu, Kathy O’Shaughnessy and Nick Rennison.

• Susie Dent for Guilty by Definition (Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK)
• Lauren Elkin for Scaffolding (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)
• Ewan Gass for Clinical Intimacy (Doubleday, Penguin Random House)
• Lara Haworth for Monumenta (Canongate Books)
• Alan Murrin for The Coast Road (Bloomsbury Circus)
• Tom Newlands for Only Here, Only Now (Phoenix, Orion)

Judge Rebecca Foster said:

‘Each of these six novels has a fully realized style. So confident and inviting are they that it’s hard to believe they are debuts. With nuanced characters and authentic settings and dilemmas, they engage the mind and delight the emotions. I will be following these authors’ careers with keen interest.’

Total prize fund: £10,000

Queen’s Knickers Award

Sponsored by its founder Nicholas Allan, the Queen’s Knickers Award is an annual prize for an outstanding children’s original illustrated book for ages 0-7. It recognises books that strike a quirky, new note and grab the attention of a child, whether in the form of curiosity, amusement, horror or excitement.

Judged by Dapo Adeola, Davina Hamilton and Soofiya.

• Anne Booth and illustrator David Litchfield for The Boy, the Troll and the Chalk (Templar, Bonnier Books UK)
• Rachel Bright and illustrator Jim Field for The Pandas Who Promised (Orchard Books, Hachette Children’s Group)
• Catherine Cawthorne and illustrator Sara Ogilvie for Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Tiny Fisscher, translator Laura Watkinson and illustrator Herma Starreveld for Bird is Dead (Greystone Kids, Greystone Books)
• Swapna Haddow and illustrator Yiting Lee for Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings (Magic Cat Publishing)
• Mikolaj Pa, translator Scotia Gilroy and illustrator Gosia Herba for No. 5 Bubblegum Street (Greystone Kids, Greystone Books)

Judge Davina Hamilton said:

‘The variety of books on the 2025 Queen’s Knickers shortlist – in terms of both literary feel and artistic style – made this a very difficult competition to judge. From heartwarming and comical tales to imaginative laugh-out-louds; thought-provoking stories to inspiring and reflective reads – each story had something special to offer. So, picking the winner and runner-up certainly required a lot of discussion and debate! While judging so many brilliant books was challenging, the experience served as a reminder that there is likely a story out there for every child to connect with, if they are encouraged to embrace the joy of reading.’

Total prize fund: £6,000