Spear

Nicola Griffith, published by Tordotcom
Winner of the 2023 ADCI Literary Prize

“I was hugely impressed by this work. There is real ambition and fluidity to the writing. It represents a vast amount of research and yet it wears that research lightly. While there was much recognizable to anyone with a glancing knowledge of Arthurian legend, there was also much that felt new. Griffith combines pre-existing myths in inventive and delightful ways. The representation in this story is joyful— acknowledging what might cause a character to be seen as other but finding no shame in it.”
— Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, 2023 ADCI Literary Prize judge

The Exit Facility

Fiona Scott-Barrett, self-published
2023 ADCI Literary Prize runner-up

“The even, competent prose of The Exit Facility provides an apt foil for the edgy critique of an acquisitive society that it evolves into. Though not for the fainthearted, it is lightened by moments of sparkling dialogue.”
— Nii Ayikwei Parkes, 2023 ADCI Literary Prize judge

Braver

Deborah Jenkins, published by Fairlight Books
2023 ADCI Literary Prize shortlist

“Months after reading this heartwarming book, I still remember the multigenerational characters and their stories vividly. As the main protagonists tackle their own challenges, which are far from straightforward, each one flourishes as new, unexpected friendships unfold. The author handles the stressful situations that Hazel, Virginia and Harry navigate with sensitivity and understanding that adds depth and heart to their stories without ever becoming trite or sentimental. The cast of background characters are all well-drawn and fully formed. Disability in various guises runs seamlessly through Braver and doesn’t suffer from tokenism or stereotype. An uplifting read.”
— Julia Lund, 2023 ADCI Literary Prize judge

Mercia’s Take

Daniel Wiles, published by Swift Press
Winner of the 2023 Betty Trask Prize

“What an exceptional, thrilling and big-hearted novel. Deeply-researched, fascinating and full of extraordinary passages of the most luminous writing, it feels frankly ridiculous that this should be a first novel. A lapidary masterpiece.”
— Alex Preston, 2023 Betty Trask Prize judge

My Name is Yip

Paddy Crewe, published by Doubleday, Penguin Random House
2023 Betty Trask Prize shortlist

“It was a huge pleasure to judge the Betty Trask prize this year. The shortlist represents the kind of brilliant writing one would be lucky to encounter in writers at the pinnacle of their careers. Everything I look for in great literature is here – innovation, wit, authenticity, and a deep understanding of the human spirit. There is real literary lightning in these pages. I read with deep interest, bordering on envy, and I can’t wait to see what these debut writers do next.”
— Sara Collins, 2023 Betty Trask Prize judge

A Very Nice Girl

Imogen Crimp, published by Bloomsbury
2023 Betty Trask Prize shortlist

“It was a huge pleasure to judge the Betty Trask prize this year. The shortlist represents the kind of brilliant writing one would be lucky to encounter in writers at the pinnacle of their careers. Everything I look for in great literature is here – innovation, wit, authenticity, and a deep understanding of the human spirit. There is real literary lightning in these pages. I read with deep interest, bordering on envy, and I can’t wait to see what these debut writers do next.”
— Sara Collins, 2023 Betty Trask Prize judge

Maps of our Spectacular Bodies

Maddie Mortimer, published by Picador, Pan Macmillan
2023 Betty Trask Prize shortlist

“It was a huge pleasure to judge the Betty Trask prize this year. The shortlist represents the kind of brilliant writing one would be lucky to encounter in writers at the pinnacle of their careers. Everything I look for in great literature is here – innovation, wit, authenticity, and a deep understanding of the human spirit. There is real literary lightning in these pages. I read with deep interest, bordering on envy, and I can’t wait to see what these debut writers do next.”
— Sara Collins, 2023 Betty Trask Prize judge

The Gifts

Liz Hyder, published by Manilla Press, Bonnier Books
2023 McKitterick Prize runner-up

“Family estates in rural Pakistan and England fall into decline reflecting the hubris and short-sightedness of their owners, it is the decaying grandeur of the courtesans of Lahore that is lovingly depicted. The other worldly brings new possibilities to the tawdry and impoverished as mystical wings fly over the slums of Victorian London and the graveyards of Trinidad.”
— Selma Dabbagh, 2023 McKitterick Prize judge

The Whalebone Theatre

Joanna Quinn, published by Fig Tree, Penguin Random House 2023 McKitterick Prize shortlist

“Family estates in rural Pakistan and England fall into decline reflecting the hubris and short-sightedness of their owners, it is the decaying grandeur of the courtesans of Lahore that is lovingly depicted. The other worldly brings new possibilities to the tawdry and impoverished as mystical wings fly over the slums of Victorian London and the graveyards of Trinidad.”
— Selma Dabbagh, 2023 McKitterick Prize judge

When we Were Birds

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House
2023 McKitterick Prize shortlist

“Family estates in rural Pakistan and England fall into decline reflecting the hubris and short-sightedness of their owners, it is the decaying grandeur of the courtesans of Lahore that is lovingly depicted. The other worldly brings new possibilities to the tawdry and impoverished as mystical wings fly over the slums of Victorian London and the graveyards of Trinidad.”
— Selma Dabbagh, 2023 McKitterick Prize judge

Other Names for Love

Taymour Soomro, published by Harvill Secker, Penguin Random House
2023 McKitterick Prize shortlist

“Family estates in rural Pakistan and England fall into decline reflecting the hubris and short-sightedness of their owners, it is the decaying grandeur of the courtesans of Lahore that is lovingly depicted. The other worldly brings new possibilities to the tawdry and impoverished as mystical wings fly over the slums of Victorian London and the graveyards of Trinidad.”
— Selma Dabbagh, 2023 McKitterick Prize judge

Lessons in Chemistry

Bonnie Garmus, published by Doubleday, Penguin Random House
Winner of the 2023 Paul Torday Memorial Prize

“It’s difficult to believe that Lessons in Chemistry is Bonnie Garmus’s first novel. Her central character, Elizabeth Zott, springs off the page and confronts us such wit and authority that she seems always to have existed somewhere between Southern California and the land of wishful thinking. Zott takes the starring role in this delicious tale of the proto-feminist revenge.”
— Andrew Taylor, 2023 Paul Torday judge

That Green Eyed Girl

Julie Owen Moylan, published by Penguin Random House
2023 Paul Torday Memorial Prize runner-up

“From historical novels to thrillers to romance, the novels on this shortlist were wonderfully varied. It was a pleasure to see such excellent writing, whether set in the Amazon or a local English village, or 1950s America, or Paris in the war. Each book showed a true writer’s commitment to making the subject come alive, and compellingly pulled this reader forward.”
— Kathy O’Shaughnessy, 2023 Paul Torday judge

Red Road Green

Jonathan Franklin, published by Sparsile Books
2023 Paul Torday Memorial Prize shortlist

“From historical novels to thrillers to romance, the novels on this shortlist were wonderfully varied. It was a pleasure to see such excellent writing, whether set in the Amazon or a local English village, or 1950s America, or Paris in the war. Each book showed a true writer’s commitment to making the subject come alive, and compellingly pulled this reader forward.”
— Kathy O’Shaughnessy, 2023 Paul Torday judge

None of the Above

Travis Alabanza, published by Canongate Books
2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner

“None of the Above is an urgent and moving testimony to the vicissitudes of living as a non-binary person of colour in modern Britain. Travis Alabanza shows us, through personal examples, the restrictions, abuse and violence, both actual and verbal, faced by a trans person on a daily basis. The book uses a clever structure to examine some commonly held beliefs and prejudices in society. Alabanza finds a path through uncertainty and loneliness to celebrate the joy of being trans.”
— Ardashir Vakil, 2023 Somerset Maugham Award judge

Birdgirl

Mya-Rose Craig, published by Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House
2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner

“Birdgirl is the quite extraordinary story of the journey from girlhood to young woman of Mya-Rose Craig. It is unique, exciting, harrowing, moving and tender. Mya’s journeys all around the world accompanied by her White father and her bipolar mother of Bangladeshi origin; logging and counting up new sightings of rare creatures, describing fascinating and far flung landscapes and peoples, dealing with the vagaries of her mother’s mental health, and showing us how, all these experiences made her into an anti-racist climate and ecology activist, I found engrossing, exuberent and inspiring.”
— Ardashir Vakil, 2023 Somerset Maugham Award judge

To Fill a Yellow House

Sussie Anie, published by Phoenix, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner

“Sussie Anie in To Fill a Yellow House shows us what happens when change strikes in two places at the same time: at personal and communal levels. She captures the consciousness of the young and charts the growth of a conscience geared towards the communal. She furnishes the heart struck with grief over the loss of a loved one with friendship between unlikely alliances and across generations.”
— Fred D’Aguiar, 2023 Somerset Maugham Award judge

Imperium

Jay Gao, published by Carcanet Press
2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner

“Jay Gao reminds us in this stunning debut poetry collection, Imperium, that difficulty trades in the spiritual and material. His loosely-based Odyssey showcases a contemporary journey across libraries, book-making, conceptual poetry, sexuality and internationalism, whilst still championing Scotland, his Chinese heritage and sense of continual dislocation as echolocations, as ways of finding out about our plural selves and shifting shapes of the places where we belong, albeit temporarily, nominally, though no less meaningfully.”
— Fred D’Aguiar, 2023 Somerset Maugham Award judge

An Olive Grove in Ends

Moses McKenzie, published by Headline, Wildfire
2023 Somerset Maugham Award winner

“Moses McKenzie writes An Olive Grove in Ends with a confidence beyond his years. He creates a vibrant community across the generations and with a Caribbean flavor of language and culture in healthy remission in Bristol as it is all over the UK. He’s not afraid of difficulty, of declaring a moral compass to his writer’s craft. An Olive Grove in Ends marks the beginning of a talented chronicler of community and the place of the arts in it.”
— Fred D’Aguiar, 2023 Somerset Maugham Award judge

The Return of Faraz Ali

Aamina Ahmad, published by Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton
Winner of the 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize

“In her ambitious and accomplished first novel, Aamina Ahmad chronicles the lives of her protagonist and his fragmented family against a backdrop of wars, divided nations, and  turbulent national and international histories. Spanning several decades, this is a skillfully crafted evocation of place, time and memory, at the meeting point of private tragedy and public turmoil.”
— Aamer Hussein, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize judge

Spies in Canaan

David Park, published by Bloomsbury
2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize runner-up

“Spies in Canaan is a reminder that the telling of events, past or present is, in part, fact but in larger part, personal perception and interpretation. Not that David Park’s take on the US war in Vietnam is new. But his observant and engaging narrative casts a discerning light on the interconnectedness between the personal and the political, and the impact of the one on the other.”
— Kerry Young, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano judge

Our Wives Under the Sea

Julia Armfield, published by Picador, Pan Macmillan
2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist

“The 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist is an eclectic mix. Historic, contemporary and futuristic. Taking us around the world from Europe to South and East Asia, and even under the sea. Through love, romance, betrayal and war. These books are different. But they share two important qualities. They all conjure an incredible sense of time and place. And they all weave intriguing stories in the lives of believable characters.”
— Kerry Young, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano judge

Violets

Alex Hyde, published by Granta Books
2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist

“The 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist is an eclectic mix. Historic, contemporary and futuristic. Taking us around the world from Europe to South and East Asia, and even under the sea. Through love, romance, betrayal and war. These books are different. But they share two important qualities. They all conjure an incredible sense of time and place. And they all weave intriguing stories in the lives of believable characters.”
— Kerry Young, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano judge

Iron Curtain: A Love Story

Vesna Goldsworthy, published by Chatto & Windus, Vintage
2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist

“The 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist is an eclectic mix. Historic, contemporary and futuristic. Taking us around the world from Europe to South and East Asia, and even under the sea. Through love, romance, betrayal and war. These books are different. But they share two important qualities. They all conjure an incredible sense of time and place. And they all weave intriguing stories in the lives of believable characters.”
— Kerry Young, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano judge

Keeping in Touch

Anjali Joseph, published by Scribe UK
2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist

“The 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize shortlist is an eclectic mix. Historic, contemporary and futuristic. Taking us around the world from Europe to South and East Asia, and even under the sea. Through love, romance, betrayal and war. These books are different. But they share two important qualities. They all conjure an incredible sense of time and place. And they all weave intriguing stories in the lives of believable characters.”
— Kerry Young, 2023 Gordon Bowker Volcano judge

Blobfish

Olaf Falafel, published by Walker Books Ltd.
Winner of the 2023 Queen’s Knickers Award

‘I loved the way Olaf Falafel combined a simple cartooning style with texture and magic underwater lighting that occasionally gave the goofy story and character brief touches of the sublime. His varied page layouts paced the story beautifully, enlivened by gentle jokes. As judges, we all liked the way the story had an environmental message about keeping our beaches clean, but we appreciated how it didn’t do it in a way that would children feel sad and helpless. I love how simple Olaf has made his main character to draw: I hope children will be inspired to write and draw the further comic adventures of Blobfish!‘
—Sarah McIntyre, 2023 Queen’s Knickers judge

The Knight with the Blazing Bottom

Beach, published by Simon & Schuster
2023 Queen’s Knickers Award shortlist

“The books on the Queen’s Knickers shortlist stood out clearly for their humour and originality. Visually they were all inspiring; I could imagine children sitting down to copy out their favourite bits, testing new ways to draw things and different ways to tell a story, or to joke with the reader. We debated long and hard to pick the winner and runner-up and, in doing so, found we were all swayed in our opinions and I genuinely felt I learned from the experience.”
—Sarah McIntyre, 2023 Queen’s Knickers judge

How to Count to One

Caspar Salmon and Matt Hunt, published by Nosy Crow
2023 Queen’s Knickers Award shortlist

“The books on the Queen’s Knickers shortlist stood out clearly for their humour and originality. Visually they were all inspiring; I could imagine children sitting down to copy out their favourite bits, testing new ways to draw things and different ways to tell a story, or to joke with the reader. We debated long and hard to pick the winner and runner-up and, in doing so, found we were all swayed in our opinions and I genuinely felt I learned from the experience.”
—Sarah McIntyre, 2023 Queen’s Knickers judge

When Creature met Creature

John Agard and Satoshi Kitamura, published by Scallywag Press
2023 Queen’s Knickers Award runner-up

“When Creature Met Creature is one of those books that, if you have been lucky enough to hear John Agard perform, comes alive with his voice. Then the estrange characters — real creatures of no description — start to change in your mind. It s a fantastic effort from a long-standing duo.”
— Ken Wilson-Max, 2023 Queen’s Knickers Award judge

Frank and Bert

Chris Naylor-Ballesteros, published by Nosy Crow
2023 Queen’s Knickers Award shortlist

“The books on the Queen’s Knickers shortlist stood out clearly for their humour and originality. Visually they were all inspiring; I could imagine children sitting down to copy out their favourite bits, testing new ways to draw things and different ways to tell a story, or to joke with the reader. We debated long and hard to pick the winner and runner-up and, in doing so, found we were all swayed in our opinions and I genuinely felt I learned from the experience.”
—Sarah McIntyre, 2023 Queen’s Knickers judge