PAUL FARLEY, NIKITA LALWANI AND ROSS RAISIN TO JUDGE 2020 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE, AS A NEW PRIZE SCHEDULE IS ANNOUNCED
Rathbones Folio Prize 2020 Judges: Paul Farley, Nikita Lalwani, Ross Raisin
The multi award-winning poet and non-fiction writer Paul Farley, the Desmond Elliot Prize-winning novelist Nikita Lalwani and Ross Raisin, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year winner and a Granta Best of Young British Novelists, have been announced as the judges for the 2020 Rathbones Folio Prize.
The £30,000 Prize – which rewards the best work of literature of the year, regardless of form – further announced that it is moving its timeline towards the beginning of the year, ahead of both the Women’s Prize and the International Booker Prize: the shortlist will now be announced on 25th February (previously 4th April), the winner on 23rd March (previously 20th May). The Rathbones Folio Prize, also known as the ‘the writers’ prize’, is the only award governed by an international academy of distinguished writers and critics. The judges, alongside their Academy peers, ensure a unique quality and consistency in the nomination and judging process.
Paul Farley, chair of the judges, said: ‘I’m so excited to be chairing the Rathbones Folio Prize panel this year. We’re living through many welcome changes in the literary landscape and hearing from a greater variety of voices, while the distinctions and divisions between genres somehow seem more permeable than ever. This prize is unique in the way it asks a community of our fellow writers to nominate a list for my fellow judges and me to consider, and also in the way it allows all genres into the mix. Good books are always good in surprising, unpredictable, challenging ways and I’m looking forward to our total immersion in reading as the nights draw in, with the certain prospect of finding an exceptional title to celebrate come the spring.’
In 2019, the judges awarded a poet for the first time since the prize was launched in 2013: Raymond Antrobus, from Hackney, east London, won for his debut collection The Perseverance.
Published by small independent publisher Penned in the Margins, his collection has seen a 150% uplift in sales since the announcement was made in May.
Having secured a substantial boost in support from sponsor Rathbone Investment Management, with the prize money increased to £30,000 (from £20,000), 2019 also saw the significant expansion of the ambitious Rathbones Mentorships and Sessions programmes.
The Rathbones Folio Mentorships – launched in 2018 in partnership with First Story – pair four writers with four gifted young writers from disadvantaged background for one-to-one creative writing tutoring over the course of a year. With no equivalent creative writing mentorship scheme in the UK, the programme will be further developed in 2020, with the creation of a mentor and mentee alumni network to provide ongoing support for graduates.
The Rathbones Folio mentors for 2020 – also announced today – will be the Northern Irish playwright and novelist, Lucy Caldwell, Rathbones Folio Prize nominated novelist, Alice Jolly, novelist and editor of the award-winning essay collection The Good Immigrant, Nikesh Shukla, and UK-based Singaporean writer and novelist Sharlene Teo.
Rathbones have sponsored sessions events featuring Academy members, shortlisted authors and judges at festivals including Bath Festival, Chalke Valley History Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival and Words by the Water Festival; stand-alone ‘Stories behind the Stories’ events in Edinburgh and London; London showcase events featuring Sebastian Faulks, Joanna Trollope and Sophie Hannah, and numerous client events featuring 2019 Prize winner Raymond Antrobus.
As in previous years, the shortlisted authors will join the judges on the eve of the prize ceremony (22nd March) to take part in a Rathbones Folio Sessions day at the British Library.
The 2020 winner will join Raymond Antrobus (2019), Richard Lloyd Parry (2018), Hisham Matar (2017), Akhil Sharma (2015) and George Saunders (2014), the previous winners of the prize.
Join the conversation via www.rathbonesfolioprize.com | @RathbonesFolio
Notes to Editors
Paul Farley (chair) was born in Liverpool and studied at the Chelsea School of Art. He has published four collections of poetry, and also written non-fiction books, including Edgelands (with Michael Symmons Roberts), as well as editing a selection of John Clare’s poetry. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a frequent broadcaster, he has received numerous awards, including Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. His latest collection, The Mizzy, is published this year.
Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan, India, and raised in Cardiff, Wales. Her first novel, Gifted, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Award and won the Desmond Elliot Prize (after which she donated her prize money to the human rights organisation, Liberty). Her next novel, The Village, was also widely acclaimed, and her new novel, You People, will be published by Viking Penguin in June 2020. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Ross Raisin was born in West Yorkshire. His first novel, God’s Own Country, was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for nine literary awards, including the Guardian First Book Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2009 Ross Raisin was named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and
in 2013 he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British writers. Two more celebrated novels, Waterline and A Natural, have followed. Ross is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
About the Rathbones Folio Prize The Folio Prize was established in 2013 as the first major English language book prize open to writers from around the world. It is the only prize in which all the books considered for the prize are selected and judged by an academy of peers. When new sponsors, Rathbone Investment Management, came on board the prize was expanded to include all works of literature, regardless of form. Previous winners were George Saunders in 2014, Akhil Sharma in 2015, Hisham Matar in 2017, Richard Lloyd-Parry in 2018 and Raymond Antrobus in 2019. www.rathbonesfolioprize.com
About The Folio Academy The Folio Academy is a community of 300+ writers who represent excellence in literature. Academicians include: Margaret Atwood, Carol Ann Duffy, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Sir Tom Stoppard. The Academy recently recruited members including Amanda Foreman, William Dalymple, Jon Ronson, Alan Johnson and Andrew Marr. Between them, Academicians have won thousands of literary awards, including 16 Man Booker Prizes. Academicians may be called upon to comment on literature matters in the media, to appear at festivals and public events, and may volunteer to mentor young writers in association with the charity First Story, which runs 320 residencies in secondary schools serving low-income communities.
For all media enquires please contact Annabel Robinson and Daniel Kramb at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or annabelr@fmcm.co.uk,danielk@fmcm.co.uk
About The Literature/Folio Prize Foundation
The Literature/Folio Prize Foundation is a registered charity committed to bringing the most outstanding works of English language literature to public attention through the awarding of the Prize and other initiatives. Overseen by its trustees, the Foundation seeks to engage readers and writers throughout the English-speaking world in cultural debate and in the celebration and sustainment of the art of literature, which it believes has the capacity to enrich and change people’s lives.
About Rathbone Investment Management
Rathbone Investment Management is one of the UK’s leading providers of high-quality discretionary investment management services. It manages over £49.2 billion* of funds for individuals, charities and trustees, and is part of Rathbone Brothers Plc, an independently owned company with a listing on the London Stock Exchange. Investment management services are offered in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Chichester, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Kendal, Liverpool, London, Lymington, Newcastle and Winchester. Offshore investment management services are offered by subsidiary Rathbone Investment Management International in Jersey. *As at 30 June 2019, includes funds managed by Rathbone Unit Trust Management
About the Rathbones Folio Prize Mentorships Four Rathbones Folio Academicians are selected from a pool of nearly 100 writers who put themselves forward for the annual Rathbones Folio Mentorship scheme. They will be paired with one of four students who take part in First Story writing residencies in 70 different schools across the country. In 2017/18, the mentors were AL Kennedy, Ross Raisin, Kamila Shamsie and Evie Wyld, in 2018/19 Francesca Beard, Joe Dunthorne, Louise Doughty, and Adam Foulds were paired with students.
