The 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction was awarded to Hisham Matar for his novel My Friends (published in the U.S. by Random House). Judge Simon Okotie called My Friends "a novel exploring the fallout of the 1984 shootings at the Libyan embassy in London, and its effect on three friends. The quietness of the prose belies the event's traumatic drama and its profound personal and political repercussions. The style is old fashioned--genteel almost--and authentic to the point of reading like the most exquisite memoir. A warm and extraordinarily clear-sighted novel that is, in part, about the power of the literary word to effect real-world change."
The Orwell Prize for Political Writing went to Matthew Longo for The Picnic: An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain (published in the U.S. by W.W. Norton). Judge Christina Lamb wrote: "In the summer of 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did something unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain--and held a picnic. They were joined by East German holidaymakers in Ladas rolling up for goulash, beer and brass-bands. I did not know this story and I loved the way it surprised me and captured the time, the idealism, and the role of ordinary citizens in the unravelling of the Iron Curtain--as well as its echoes for today. Wonderfully told through extensive interviews with everyone from the human rights activist who came up with the madcap idea, the stubborn young woman who made it happen, to Stasi agents and border guards."
Both winners receive £3,000 (about $3,800).
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Winners have been announced for the 10th annual Firecracker Awards, given by the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP) to the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence. Each winner in the book categories receives $2,000, with $1,000 going to the press and $1,000 to the author.
Book winners were:
Fiction: You Were Watching from the Sand by Juliana Lamy (Red Hen Press). Judges called the book "a commanding debut that mingles the magical with the mundane. These vibrant, masterfully wrought stories weave the otherworldly into the psychological and interpersonal, grounding Lamy's characters not only in their unique voices, corporealities, and sense of place, but also in the complex racial and class dynamics that determine their lives. The language in this collection crackles with a propulsive energy, and there's not a weak story to be found. Lamy's impressive range is on full display; this is likely just the beginning of what looks to be a thrilling literary career."
Creative Nonfiction: The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood, and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World by Elizabeth Rush (Milkweed Editions). "The Quickening is an excellent chronicle of the deteriorating Antarctic glaciers at a critical crossroads with the author's own reckoning with the ethics of bringing new life into a rapidly changing world. An incredible journey and an essential antidote to the settler masculinist-explorer narrative, The Quickening offers readers a chance to collectively refuse turning Antarctica into a passive symbol of the coming apocalypse. This is an inspiring document of an expedition powered by a deep understanding of the consequences that lie ahead and invites us, her readers, to turn and embrace hope."
Poetry: The Limitless Heart by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor (Haymarket Books). "The sublime and evocative work of Boyce-Taylor is beautifully presented in this collection of new and previously published work. With expansive and intimate vision, Boyce-Taylor grapples with longing, grief, displacement, and motherhood among many other timely and engaging themes. Whether she is reminiscing about the sensuous surroundings of her homeland or mourning the loss of her beloved son, the poems are always lyrical, vivid, each piece imbued with powerful affirmation and profound abundance. This collection is an astonishing achievement and beautiful gathering of a life's work."
The Lord Nose Award, given for "a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing," went to Jim Perlman, founding editor and publisher of Holy Cow! Press.
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The shortlist has been selected for the 2024 TLS Ackerley Prize, which is given to a memoir or autobiography by a British author. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on July 25.
The shortlist:
Mother Country by Monique Charlesworth
Private Worlds by Jeremy Seabrook
The Stirrings by Catherine Taylor