Jacqueline Crooks is a British writer whose debut novel, Fire Rush , was shortlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. She was described as one of the "10 best new novelists for 2023" by The Observer . [1]
Crooks was born in Jamaica and raised in Southall, west London. [1] She graduated from the University of Roehampton with a degree in Social Policy and Goldsmiths, University of London with a Master of Arts (MA) in Creative and Life Writing. [2]
Crooks wrote a short story collection titled The Ice Migration which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell political fiction prize. [1] [3] One of her short stories was shortlisted for the BBC national short story award in 2019. [1]
Her debut novel, Fire Rush , took 16 years to write and is based on her diary entries. [1] [4] It has been shortlisted for prizes including:
The Carnegie Medal for Writing, established in 1936 as the Carnegie Medal, is an annual British literary award for English-language books for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), who in 2016 called it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing".
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.
The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" ; between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".
Gordon Burn was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction.
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is the United Kingdom's first literary award for comic literature. Established in 2000 and named in honour of P. G. Wodehouse, past winners include Paul Torday in 2007 with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Marina Lewycka with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian 2005 and Jasper Fforde for The Well of Lost Plots in 2004. Gary Shteyngart was the first American winner in 2011, and 2020 saw a graphic novel take the prize for the first time.
The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in. The prize is awarded by British book retailer Waterstones.
Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a literary fiction list and both a children's list and an upmarket crime list, and now publishes across a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, current affairs, popular science, religion, philosophy, and psychology, as well as literary fiction, crime fiction and suspense, and children's titles.
Tom Rachman is an English-Canadian author. His debut novel was The Imperfectionists (2010), about a group of journalists working in Rome during the collapse of the traditional news media. The book became a global bestseller, published in 25 languages, and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, optioned the film rights.
Samantha Harvey is an English novelist. She won the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital, which drew on conventions from multiple genres and fields, including literary fiction, science fiction, and philosophy.
TheWriters' Prize, previously known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017, the sponsor was Rathbone Investment Management. At the 2023 award ceremony, it was announced that the prize was looking for new sponsorship as Rathbones would be ending their support. In November 2023, having failed to secure a replacement sponsor, the award's governing body announced its rebrand as The Writers' Prize.
Candy Gourlay is a Filipino journalist and author based in the United Kingdom whose debut novel Tall Story (2010) was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Chigozie Obioma is a Nigerian writer who wrote the novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in their respective years of publication. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. His third novel, The Road to the Country, was published in 2024, and was described by The Guardian as having "given a voice" to the victims of the Nigerian civil war.
Patrice Lawrence MBE, FRSL is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize's inaugural children's and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020).
Onjali Qatara Raúf is a British author and the founder of the two NGOs: Making Herstory, a woman's rights organisation tackling the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK; and O's Refugee Aid Team, which raises awareness and funds to support refugee frontline aid organisations.
Guy Gunaratne is a British journalist, filmmaker and novelist. Gunaratne identifies as non-binary and uses he/they/them pronouns.
Preti Taneja FRSL is a British writer, screenwriter and educator. She is currently professor of world literature and creative writing at Newcastle University. Her first novel, We That Are Young, won the Desmond Elliott Prize and was shortlisted for several awards, including the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Prix Jan Michalski, and the Shakti Bhatt Prize. In 2005, a film she co-wrote was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Taneja's second book, Aftermath, is an account of the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, and describes her knowledge of the victims, as well as her experience having previously taught the perpetrator of the attacks in a prison education programme. It won the Gordon Burn Prize for 2022.
Megan Nolan is an Irish journalist, and author from County Waterford. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and was one of the four awardees of the 2022 Betty Trask Award for debut novels.
Aube Rey Lescure is a French–Chinese–American writer whose debut novel River East, River West has been shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction.
Priscilla Morris is a British author and lecturer whose debut novel, Black Butterflies, was shortlisted for a number of awards including the Women's Prize for Fiction.