British Book Awards 2017 judges revealed

Front Row’s Samira Ahmed, television presenter June Sarpong, past Publishers Association c.e.o. Simon Juden, former Little, Brown chief executive Ursula Mackenzie, authors Peter James, Lorraine Pascale, Dreda Say Mitchell and Fanny Blake, and literary journalists Andrew Holgate, Arifa Akbar and Claire Armitstead are among the judges for the British Book Awards 2017.

In total, more than 400 entries have been submitted for the awards, which will bring together authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians and literary agents on 8th May for a night celebrating the entire book business. The full list of judges can be found here. 

The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, honours the commercial successes of publishers, authors and bookshops. It succeeds 2016’s British Book Industry Awards. 

This year's awards sees the highest ever number of regional shortlisted bookshops for the Independent Bookshop of the Year award. In all, submissions were up 15% in this competitive category, with 42 independent bookshops from eight regions across the UK and Ireland making the cut.