1 June 2022
Cartoonist Will McPhail, Welsh poet Menna Elfyn and previous winner Maame Blue among this year’s SoA Award-winners.
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(Left to right: Lemn Sissay, Will McPhail and Joanne Harris. Photograph © Adrian Pope)
New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail has won the Betty Trask Prize at the 2022 Society of Authors' Awards for IN: The Graphic Novel – the first time a graphic novel has been named a winner of the prize. The novel is an account of a young illustrator’s struggle to find connection, praised by judges as a ‘devastating vision of contemporary loneliness’.
The winners have been announced today (1 June 2022), with 32 writers, poets and illustrators at all stages of their careers sharing the UK’s biggest literary prize fund of more than £100,000.
Lemn Sissay, Joanne Harris and our celebrated judging panels will congratulate the winners later in a live ceremony taking place at Southwark Cathedral and online, and generously sponsored by ALCS.
Among this year’s winners are software developer turned children’s author Alastair Chisholm and illustrator David Roberts who won the Queen’s Knickers award with Inch and Grub, a ‘joyfully funny’ children’s book written in ‘caveman’.
Maame Blue picked up her second award in a row, following her triumph last year as a 2021 Betty Trask Award winner. This year she has been chosen as one of the 2022 Travelling Scholarship recipients, selected for her project of ‘shadowing Othello’ through exchanges with Ghanian writers in Italy.
Other winners include award-winning Welsh poet Menna Elfyn, who has been awarded a Cholmondeley Prize for contribution to poetry; debut novelist David Annand, who won the McKitterick prize for Peterdown; 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize-winner Kanya D'Almeida, who won the ALCS Tom-Gallon Award for I Cleaned The—; and previous shortlistee Sheila Llewellyn who is taking home the inaugural Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize for Winter in Tabriz.
Lemn Sissay reflected on themes of hope and connection ahead of the awards ceremony, saying:
“Exit anger, enter kindness. Exit isolation, enter book shops. Exit fear, enter imagination. Exit loss, enter hope. Exit pandemic, enter the Society of Authors’ awards ceremony.”
Will McPhail, winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2022, says:
“I cannot begin to describe how much this award means to me. I probably should be able to describe it, being an author and all, but if you’ve read my book then you’ll know that I do most of my describing through drawings of people looking all sad at each other. Being nominated alongside these wonderful authors was already a surreal dream and the fact that IN was picked as the first graphic novel to win this award is the honour of a lifetime. My only worry is that I’m now too happy to draw sad people.”
The winners for each award are:
The ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award
Sponsored by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), 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 Claire Fuller, Sophie Haydock, Billy Kahora and Mary Watson.
Total prize fund: £1,575.
THE ALCS TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD WINNER: KANYA D'ALMEIDA FOR I CLEANED THE—, AWARDED £1,000
Kanya D’Almeida is a Sri Lankan writer. Her story 'I Cleaned The—' won the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her fiction has appeared on Jaggery and The Bangalore Review. She holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She is the host of The Darkest Light, a podcast exploring birth and motherhood in Sri Lanka. She is working on a book of short stories about mad women.
ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award judge Claire Fuller says: ‘I Cleaned The— gets everything right. Bold, brilliant writing, a strong story, and unforgettable characters. I loved the black humour, the subtle layers and themes, and all the unsaid things that made me think about it long after I'd finished. It's the sort of story that you can read again and again and each time discover something new.’
THE ALCS TOM-GALLON TRUST AWARD RUNNER-UP: DEAN GESSIE FOR HEAD SMASHED IN BUFFALO JUMP, AWARDED £575
Dean Gessie is an author and poet who has won dozens of international awards and prizes. Among other honours, Dean was included in The 64 Best Poets of 2018 and 2019 by Black Mountain Press in North Carolina. Dean’s short story collection – called Anthropocene - won an Eyelands Book Award in Greece and the Uncollected Press Prize in Maryland. He has a book of poetry forthcoming [goat song] from Uncollected Press.
Betty Trask Prize & Awards
The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are presented for a first novel by a writer under 35. Judged by Sara Collins, Michael Donkor, and Alex Preston.
Total prize and award fund: £26,200.
Betty Trask Prize winner
WILL MCPHAIL FOR IN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL (HODDER & STOUGHTON, SCEPTRE) AWARDED £10,000
Will McPhail has been contributing cartoons, sketchbooks, and humour pieces to the New Yorker since 2014. His work has also been published in Private Eye and the New Statesman. In 2013 he won the British Cartoonists' Association's Young Cartoonist of the Year and the NCS Reuben Award for Gag Cartoonist of the Year in 2016. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Betty Trask judge Alex Preston says: ‘This is a simply devastating vision of contemporary loneliness, a book that will leave you gasping for air by the time you finish it. The speed with which we agreed on the winner speaks to quite what an exceptional debut this is. I feel hugely privileged to have read it, delighted to award it the Betty Trask Prize this year.’
Betty Trask Awards winners
4 winners, each awarded £4,050.
MEGAN NOLAN FOR ACTS OF DESPERATION (JONATHAN CAPE, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE)
Megan Nolan lives in London and was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland. Her essays, fiction and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The White Review, The Sunday Times, The Village Voice, The Guardian and in the literary anthology, Winter Papers. She writes a fortnightly column for the New Statesman. This is her first novel.
NATASHA BROWN FOR ASSEMBLY (HAMISH HAMILTON, PENGUIN GENERAL)
Natasha Brown has spent a decade working in financial services, after studying Maths at Cambridge University. She developed Assembly after receiving a 2019 London Writers Award in the literary fiction category.
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON FOR OPEN WATER (PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, VIKING)
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. His writing has been published in Litro. He was recently shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize and won the People's Choice prize. Open Water is his first novel.
A. K. BLAKEMORE FOR THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES (GRANTA BOOKS)
A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others.
Cholmondeley Award winners
5 winners each awarded £1,680.
The Cholmondeley Awards are awarded for a body of work by a poet. Judged by Moniza Alvi, Hannah Lowe, Drew Milne and Deryn Rees-Jones.
Total prize fund: £8,400.
MENNA ELFYN
Menna Elfyn is an award-winning Welsh poet and playwright. She has published fifteen collections of poetry, children’s novels, libretti for UK and US composers, stage, television and radio plays. Murmur, (Bloodaxe Books, 2012) was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. Bondo (Bloodaxe Books) was published in 2017 and a literary memoir Cennad in 2018. She has been translated into twenty languages and is Professor Emerita of Poetry at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.
DAVID KINLOCH
David Kinloch was born, brought up and educated in Glasgow. He is the author of five full collections of poems, mostly published by Carcanet. His next book, Greengown: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet) will appear in November 2022. David helped to set up both the Scottish Writers’ Centre and The Edwin Morgan Trust and is an emeritus professor of poetry at the University of Strathclyde. His website is www.davidkinloch.co.uk
TIFFANY ATKINSON
Tiffany Atkinson is a Norwich-based poet and critic. Her fourth poetry collection, Lumen (Bloodaxe Books, 2021) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry) at UEA, where she convenes the MA in Poetry. She is currently completing a monograph on poetry, embarrassment and ethics.
GERRY LOOSE
Gerry Loose is a poet living on the Isle of Bute. As well as his many publications, his work is also to be found inscribed on stone in Botanic Gardens, hospitals, schools and other public places.
MAGGIE O'SULLIVAN
Maggie O'Sullivan has performed her work and published internationally since the late 1970s. Her works are published by the finest independent presses. Her most recent book work is Courtship of Lapwings (if p then q, 2021). She is based in West Yorkshire.
Eric Gregory Award winners
7 winners each awarded £4,050.
The Eric Gregory Award is presented for a collection of poems by a poet under 30. Judged by Raymond Antrobus, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Sarah Howe, Gwyneth Lewis, Roger Robinson and Joelle Taylor.
Total prize fund: £28,350.
Sarah Howe, Eric Gregory judge, says:
‘In the course of the judging, we read collections by a host of accomplished writers: their approaches to making poems were various, inventive, defamiliarizing, compelling. Many collections had impressively overarching thematic or narrative ambitions; some accumulated through a series of quieter lyric moments; others pushed the parameters of language and expression in unexpected directions.
‘The poets who made it to the final seven are the ones whose work at first stood out and then endured after successive encounters: I can’t wait to see what they do next.’
STEPHANIE SY-QUIA FOR AMNION
Stephanie Sy-Quia is a writer, critic, and printmaker based in London. Her writing has appeared in the TLS, Guardian, Granta, Financial Times, and others. She is a member of the Ledbury Critics Programme and has twice been shortlisted for the FT Bodley Head Essay Prize. She studied English at Oxford.
DANIELLA FEARON FOR BEYOND THE MONOCHROME LENS
Daniella Fearon is a South London poet who studied BA English with Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College and MA Poetry at Roehampton University. The main thematic concerns of her poetry include identity, racial equality and social change. Her poetry has been published in Roehampton university magazine Roey Writes, the Roehampton Showcase and Blaze, an ekphrastic anthology after Bridget Riley inspired by a Hayward Gallery exhibition.
JACK COOPER FOR BREAK THE NOSE OF EVERY BEAUTIFUL THING
Jack Cooper is a science communicator living in London. His poetry has featured in publications such as Ambit, Popshot, and Young Poets Network, and was recently discussed on BBC Radio 4. The Poetry Society educational resource ‘We Are Cellular’ uses his poem ‘Micrographia, 1665’ to teach senior school students about metaphor and cell biology. Jack studied Cell and Systems Biology (BA) at the University of Oxford and Medical Sciences (MScR) at the University of Warwick.
MAISIE NEWMAN FOR OUR NAMES WERE OIL
Maisie Newman is a Bristol based writer, performance director and artist who studied at Liverpool Hope (BA) and Oxford University (MFA). She was named proxime accessit for The Rex Warner prize for poetry and recently published ‘A Book of Visions’ with Book Works (2021). Her writing and artworks have also been exhibited at Caraboo projects, Bristol.
COURTNEY CONRAD FOR REVELATIONS
Courtney Conrad is a Jamaican poet who explores the intersectionality of religion, sexuality and migration. She is a member of The London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2021, Barbican Young Poets 2021. Alumna of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, Obsidian Foundation and Roundhouse Poetry Collective. 2021 Bridport Prize Young Writers Award recipient, shortlistee for The White Review Poet's Prize 2020 and longlistee for the Rebecca Swift Women Poets’ Prize 2020 and The Rialto Nature and Place Poetry Competition 2021. Her poems have appeared in The White Review, Magma Poetry, Stand Magazine, Poetry Wales and Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal.
RHIYA PAU FOR ROUTES
Rhiya Pau is a British-born poet of Indian heritage from a community that has a rich history of migration. She writes to chronicle the stories of her community and narrate the exploration of her own identity through the lenses of travel, food, ritual and language. She is the Platinum Poetry winner in the 2021 Creative Futures Writers' Awards and has work upcoming in Arachne Press' anthology 'Where We Find Ourselves'. Her debut collection, Routes, releases in 2022 to commemorate 50 years since her family migrated to the UK. Rhiya holds a BA from the University of Oxford and is a Poetry Reader at the Adroit Journal.
JOE CARRICK-VARTY FOR SKY DOC
Joe Carrick-Varty is a British-Irish writer, poet and co-founder of bath magg. He is the author of two pamphlets of poetry: Somewhere Far (The Poetry Business, 2019) and 54 Questions For The Man Who Sold A Shotgun To My Father (Out-Spoken Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review and the New Statesman. In 2018 he won the New Poets Prize, and in 2019 Poetry Ireland named him one of Ireland's most exciting new poets. His debut collection is forthcoming in 2023.
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 Caroline Brothers, Philip Hensher and Aamer Hussein.
Total prize fund £2,750.
THE GORDON BOWKER VOCANO PRIZE WINNER: SHEILA LLEWELLYN FOR WINTER IN TABRIZ (SCEPTRE, HODDER & STOUGHTON)
Sheila Llewellyn was born in England, of Welsh heritage, and has dual British/Irish citizenship. She has worked in Africa, Iran, Singapore, Germany and Russia. She completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Belfast in 2016. Her first novel, Walking Wounded, was published in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ Paul Torday Memorial Prize. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies and shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award twice, the Sean Ó Faoláin Prize and the Bridport Prize. She also won the RTÉ Radio One P.J. O’Connor Prize for Radio Drama.
Caroline Brothers, Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize judge, says: ‘The novel stood out for the sophistication of its engagement with a country in upheaval, for its exploration of the risks and price of resistance, and for its honesty about being a foreigner with an escape route from someone else’s history. It is a novel that takes no easy fictional solutions, but speaks hard-won truths about the way seismic change reverberates upon even the least political of lives.’
THE GORDON BOWKER VOCANO PRIZE RUNNER UP: JAMIE O'CONNELL FOR DIVING FOR PEARLS (DOUBLEDAY / TRANSWORLD / PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE)
Jamie O'Connell has had short stories highly commended by the Costa Short Story Award and the Irish Book Award Short Story of the Year. He has been longlisted for BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines Short Story Competition and shortlisted for the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and the Sky Arts Futures Fund. He has an MFA and MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. He has worked for Penguin Random House, Gill Books and O'Brien Press.
McKitterick Prize
The McKitterick Prize is awarded for a first novel by a writer over 40. Judged by Selma Dabbagh, Rebecca Foster, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Anietie Isong and Nick Rennison.
Total prize fund: £5,250.
THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE WINNER: DAVID ANNAND FOR PETERDOWN (LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP / CORSAIR IMPRINT), AWARDED £4,000
David Annand has worked as an editor at Condé Nast Traveller and GQ. He has written for the FT, TLS, Telegraph, Literary Review, the New Statesman and Time Out. Peterdown is his first book.
Selma Dabbagh, McKitterick judge, says: ‘A powerful, accomplished novel. In Peterdown buildings are fought over and characters’ morality is tested with every twist in the plot. In this celebration of no-glory heroics Annand provides a state of the nation novel rich with compassion and intelligence.’
THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE RUNNER-UP: LISA TADDEO FOR ANIMAL (BLOOMSBURY CIRCUS, BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING), AWARDED £1,250
Lisa Taddeo is the author of Three Women, which she is currently adapting for a television series with Showtime. Three Women was both a Sunday Times and New York Times number one bestseller, the most-picked book of the year in the UK in 2019, the British Book Awards Narrative Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine and has contributed to the Sunday Times, New York magazine, Esquire, Elle, Glamour and many other publications.
Paul Torday Memorial Prize
The Paul Torday Memorial Prize is awarded to a first novel by a writer over 60. The prize includes a set of the collected works of British writer Paul Torday, who published his first novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen at the age of 60. Judged by Mavis Cheek, Denise Mina and Donald S Murray.
Total prize fund: £1,000.
PAUL TORDAY MEMORIAL PRIZE WINNER: JANE FRASER FOR ADVENT (HONNO PRESS) AWARDED £1,000
Jane Fraser lives, works and writes in the Gower peninsula. Her debut collection of short fiction The South Westerlies was published by Salt, in June 2019. She has been widely published in anthologies and reviews including New Welsh Review, The Lonely Crowd, Fish Publishing, TSS and The London Magazine. In 2017 she was a finalist in the Manchester Fiction Prize and in 2018 was a prize winner in the Fish Memoir Prize. She was selected as one of Hay Writers at Work, a prestigious creative development award for emerging writers, in both 2018 and 2019.
Donald S Murray, Paul Torday Memorial Prize judge, says: ‘Vivid and poetic, Jane Fraser’s ‘Advent’ summons up the realities of life in the Gower Peninsula at the beginning of the twentieth century, doing this through a rich and deep exploration of the life of Ellen, the novel’s central character… A well-deserved winner, it is an outstanding tale, made all the more unforgettable and powerful by its remarkable hush and restraint.’
PAUL TORDAY MEMORIAL PRIZE RUNNER-UP: MICHAEL MALLON FOR THE DISCIPLE (ZULEIKA)
Michael Mallon was born in 1960. He has lived between Italy, France and America. He now lives in Philadelphia. This was his first book.
Queen’s Knickers Award
The Queen’s Knickers Award is an annual prize founded by Nicholas Allan, author of The Queen's Knickers, 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 this be in the form of curiosity, amusement, horror or excitement. Judged by Lauren Child, Petr Horácek and Patrice Lawrence.
Total prize fund: £6,000.
QUEEN’S KNICKERS AWARD WINNERS: ALASTAIR CHISHOLM AND DAVID ROBERTS FOR INCH AND GRUB (WALKER BOOKS), AWARDED £5,000
Alastair Chisholm began his career as a software developer in Edinburgh. His interest in devising and tackling logical problems led him to create the hugely successful Kids Book of Sudoku and Kids Book of Karuko puzzle book series. The Prince and the Witch and the Thief and the Bears, illustrated by Jez Tuya, was his first picture book. Alastair lives in Edinburgh.
David Roberts is the author-illustrator of the Dirty Bertie books and the illustrator of many books for children, including the bestselling Rosie Revere, Engineer and Ada Twist, Scientist, written by Andrea Beaty, several titles by Julia Donaldson, the Kate Greenaway-shortlisted The Dunderheads, written by Paul Fleischman, non-fiction children's book Suffragette: The Battle for Equality, and the picture books The Dumpster Diver, written by Janet S. Wong, and His Royal Tinyness, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Born in Liverpool, he now lives in London.
Lauren Child, Queen’s Knickers Award judge, says: ‘Beautifully clever writing. The dialogue – all written in ‘caveman’ – is joyfully funny and stands up to repeated reading. The illustration is exquisite, brilliantly drawing beyond the words with wit and exaggeration. We can only laugh at the ridiculousness of Inch and Grub and their pointless drive for one up-man-ship… The perfect marriage of picture and text.’
QUEEN’S KNICKERS AWARD RUNNER-UP: MICK JACKSON AND JOHN BROADLEY FOR WHILE YOU’RE SLEEPING (PAVILION CHILDREN'S BOOKS) AWARDED £1,000
Mick Jackson is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter from Lancashire, UK. His first novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has recently started writing for children.
John Broadley has been active in illustration and small press publishing since the mid 1990s. He works mostly in pen and ink and collage. His work has recently been used to decorate the interiors, menus and branding for Quo Vadis restaurant Soho. He has designed a range of packaging and ceramics for the Fine Cheese Company and also wine labels for Gabb Family, Berry Bros & Rudd, and Fortnum & Mason. John has illustrated several food and historically themed books, as well as many magazines. While You’re Sleeping is his first children’s book.
Somerset Maugham Award winners
The Somerset Maugham Awards are for published works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by writers under 30, to enable them to enrich their work by gaining experience of foreign countries. Judged by Fred D’Aguiar, Ardashir Vakil and Roseanne Watt.
5 winners each awarded £3,200.
Total prize fund: £16,000.
STEPHANIE SY-QUIA FOR AMNION (GRANTA, GRANTA POETRY)
Stephanie Sy-Quia was born in 1995 in California and now lives in London. She studied English at Oxford and currently works as a freelance journalist. Her writing has appeared in the FT Weekend, the TLS, the Economist, the Spectator and TANK magazine, and has twice been shortlisted for the FT Bodley Head Essay prize.
TICE CIN FOR KEEPING THE HOUSE (AND OTHER STORIES)
Tice Cin is an interdisciplinary artist from north London. A London Writers Award-winner, her work has been published by Extra Teeth and Skin Deep and commissioned by places like Battersea Arts Centre and St Paul’s Cathedral. An alumnus of Barbican Young Poets, she now creates digital art as part of Design Yourself – a collective based at the Barbican Centre – exploring what it means to be human when technology is changing everything. A producer and DJ, she is releasing an EP, Keeping the House, to accompany her debut novel of the same name.
LUCIA OSBORNE-CROWLEY FOR MY BODY KEEPS YOUR SECRETS (THE INDIGO PRESS)
Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a writer and journalist. Her news reporting and literary work has appeared in Granta, The Sunday Times, HuffPost UK, the Guardian, ABC News, Meanjin, The Lifted Brow and others. Lucia works as a staff reporter for Law360. Lucia’s first book, I Choose Elena, was published in 2019. Her second book, My Body Keeps Your Secrets: Dispatches on Shame and Reclamation, was published in September 2021.
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON FOR OPEN WATER (PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, VIKING)
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. His writing has been published in Litro. He was recently shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize and won the People's Choice prize. Open Water is his first novel.
MAIA ELSNER FOR OVERRUN BY WILD BOARS (FLIPPED EYE PUBLISHING)
Born in London to Mexican and Polish Jewish parents, Maia Elsner grew up in a multi-lingual, multi-faith household. Her recent poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland, Magma, Tinderbox and The Maine Review. Maia’s work has been widely anthologised, including in Un Nuevo Sol: British LatinX Writers (flipped eye, 2019), Field Notes on Survival (Bad Betty Press, 2020), Live Canon 2020 Anthology (Live Canon, 2020), Crossing Lines: An Anthology of Immigrant Poetry (Broken Sleep Books, 2020). She is currently working on a collaborative poetry film project, and on translating Latin American writers into English. Overrun by Wild Boars (2021) is her début collection.
Travelling Scholarships
6 winners each awarded £1,333.33.
The Travelling Scholarships are awarded to British writers to enable engagement with writers abroad. Judged by Tahmima Anam, Aida Edemariam, Gabriel Gbadamosi, Anne McElvoy and Abir Mukherjee.
Total prize fund: £8,000.
LINDA BROGAN
Four consecutive ACE Awards funded Linda Brogan’s last project: The Reno. 1970s soul cellar club in Manchester's Moss Side frequented by Linda and other mixed race, born in 1950s England: no blacks, no Irish, no dogs. 2016 Linda filmed Reno memoirs. 2017 excavated the Reno. 2018/2020 exhibited all in a Whitworth Art Gallery residency. 2019 won MCC Outstanding Contribution to MCR Culture Award. 2021 coached three female Reno regulars to write their intertwined memoirs. 2023 to be published by Bluemoose Books. 2024 she's planning to ‘Raise a Barn’ in MIF's Factory.
MAAME BLUE
Maame Blue is a Ghanaian-Londoner and author of the novel Bad Love, which won the 2021 Betty Trask Award; her stories have also appeared in anthologies in the UK and Australia. She is currently penning a second and third novel, running writing workshops and cautiously travelling again.
DYLAN MOORE
Dylan Moore is author of the novel Many Rivers to Cross and travel essays Driving Home Both Ways. He edits The Welsh Agenda for the Institute of Welsh Affairs, and his journalism has appeared in The National, Vanity Fair and on BBC Radio 4. He is a Hay Festival International Fellow.
AYISHA MALIK
Ayisha Malik's novels Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, The Other Half of Happiness, and This Green and Pleasant Land were met with great critical acclaim and she was a WHSmith Fresh Talent Pick. She is winner of The Diversity Book Awards and has been shortlisted for The Asian Women of Achievement Award, Marie Claire's Future Shapers' Awards and the h100 Awards. Her fourth novel, The Movement, is out July 2022.
BEN JUDAH
Ben Judah is a writer, journalist and author and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center based in New York. He is the author of two acclaimed books: Fragile Empire, a study of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and This is London, a book on the British capital. He is working on his third book with Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan. He has been commended as British Feature Writer of the Year at The Press Awards (formerly known as the British Press Awards), been selected as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, and most recently was a finalist for the 2019 Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage.
ALICE ALBINIA
Alice Albinia is the award-winning author of twinned works of fiction and non-fiction. Empires of the Indus and Leela's Book explore overlapping territory in South Asia; Cwen and The Britannias, Britain through its islands. Cwen, set on an archipelago that comes under female rule, is out now with Serpent's Tail; The Britannias is forthcoming from Allen Lane.
The SoA Awards are supported by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity, ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 110,000 members, and since 1977 has paid around £500 million to writers.