The Folio Prize was announced with fanfare in 2013 as a counter to ‘issues’ with the Booker Prize but it’s not a prize that I have followed because the books and authors on their long- and shortlists are usually unfamiliar to me, or (sometimes) I’m not keen on their previous work. (Links on author names below are to reviews of works other than the prize-winning titles.) The prize website tells me who the previous winners have been:
Prize winners to date are: Tenth of December by George Saunders (2014); Family Life by Akhil Sharma (2015); The Return by Hisham Matar (2017); Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry (2018); The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus (2019); Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2020); In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (2021); and Colm Tóibín, The Magician (2022, see my review).
But this year, I learned via Book Twitter that Michelle de Kretser was awarded the Folio Fiction prize for Scary Monsters, (see my review) so *chuckle* I’ve paid attention this time…
The winner of the poetry prize was Victoria Adukwei Bulley for her collection, Quiet; and the winner of the Non-Fiction prize was Margo Jefferson for Constructing a Nervous System.
Congratulations to all the winners!
These are the 2023 shortlists. I tried reading Glory by No Violet Bulawayo and abandoned it. Brona read Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea and pronounced it her favourite amongst the series. I don’t know any of the others…
More about the prize, from the prize website:
First awarded in 2014 (originally known as The Folio Prize), the Rathbones Folio Prize is open to all works of literature written in English and published in the UK, and is worth over £30,000. All genres and all forms of literature are eligible, except work written primarily for children.
The Prize is unique in that it is judged by members of the 300-strong Rathbones Folio Academy of esteemed writers and critics.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
Glad you saw this! It was a nice surprise to see on Twitter when I woke up at 5am!
I always used to get an invite to the award ceremony when I lived in London but couldn’t always attend for various reasons. I think the prize is too similar to the Goldsmiths which was set up around the same time and for the same reason (ie in response to Booker opening its doors to the US). But the Goldsmiths does push for experimental fiction so it would be interesting to see if deKretser is listed for that one. I think the shortlist usually comes out in the UK autumn.
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By: kimbofo on March 28, 2023
at 12:56 pm
You know what, I miss the Commonwealth Writers Prize when there were regional winners and an overall winner. It gave Australian and NZ writers more exposure and it introduced readers to books outside the US/UK conglomerates.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 1:06 pm
Yes, and really good intro to writers from India, Caribbean etc too
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By: kimbofo on March 28, 2023
at 1:13 pm
And Canada!
I was invited to the awards ceremony when it was here in Melbourne and I read everything that was on the shortlist. I still remember all those marvellous books: There was De Kretser’s The Hamilton Case, Frances Itani’s Deafening, Andre Brink’s The Other Side of Silence and Caryl Philip’s A Distant Shore (which won it).
And just looking at the WP page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Foundation_prizes) I can see how many of those shortlisted writers I came to know, through the prize. And at least 17 of them that I’ve read are People of Colour.
Conversely, I haven’t got to know a single writer who’s won or been nominated for the Short Story Prize. If any of them have written anything else of note, I haven’t come across it.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 1:31 pm
Oh, that’s a good list… never looked at that page before. I’ve read 25 shortlisted books and have at least 10 others in the TBR !
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By: kimbofo on March 28, 2023
at 2:02 pm
Well, there you go, that shows you what a useful prize it was!
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 3:12 pm
That’s good news. Funny I am reading Michelle De Krester
“The Lost Dog” picked up in Op Shop.
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By: Fay K on March 28, 2023
at 12:59 pm
Ah. Do let me know what you think of it.
I disliked it, and I very rarely actively dislike a book. And I sometimes wonder if I was fair to it, or missed something that would justify the elements I disliked so much. So I’m always interested to see what other readers think of it.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 1:39 pm
I will let you know my view but it’s not a a can’t put it down read. I have a loyalty to Australian writers which compels me to pick up their books wherever I find them.
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By: Fay K on March 28, 2023
at 5:44 pm
That’s the kind of loyalty I like:)
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 5:47 pm
I must go and read Brona’s review of Lucy by the Sea. I enjoyed the Lucy books but I’m pretty sure this is the one I didn’t buy after skimming a sample. I’m not sure if I’d just had enough of Lucy or if it was to do with the Covid inclusion. Off to Brona’s site now.
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By: karenlee thompson on March 28, 2023
at 5:05 pm
I know what you mean, I have consciously avoided books ‘about’ Covid. Firstly, I think it’s too soon for anyone to be reflective about it, and secondly, I’m over it (even though it’s not over.)
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 5:21 pm
Thanks for the Lucy shout-out. If you’re going to read a Covid book, then I think this is the one to test yourself with. I also thought I was over Lucy, but Strout is very good at what she does.
I read Pure Colour as well, but it was during my blogging malaise last year, so it’s part of the May mini review with several other books that deserved better!
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By: Brona's Books on March 28, 2023
at 6:30 pm
#WagsFinger: never feel guilty about not blogging enough, we are all volunteers doing the best we can!
I really liked Amy and Isabelle but Olive Ketteridge didn’t really interest me, so Strout is one of those authors who has to wait until I see her books lying about at the library and don’t have much else to read. But I know, lots of people love her stuff.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 6:45 pm
“Conversely, I haven’t got to know a single writer who’s won or been nominated for the Short Story Prize. If any of them have written anything else of note, I haven’t come across it.” Here’s something to amuse you, Lisa. In 2019 the first short story I had ever written (A Nightmare of Greengrocers) was shortlisted. My wife and I drank expensive champagne. A week later the embarrassed administrator advised me the story had been delisted because someone at the Commonwealth Foundation saw my note that I had ‘published’ it briefly on the internet, and decided I had thereby breached the no-prior-publication rule. Caryl Phillips, chair of judges, wrote me a commiserating note on behalf of the panel that left me thinking I would have won if I had not outed myself. A couple of years later I wrote my novel Death of a Coast Watcher, which you seemed to like a fair bit.
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By: Tony English on March 28, 2023
at 9:53 pm
“A couple of years later I wrote my novel Death of a Coast Watcher, which you seemed to like a fair bit.” ‘Published’ not ‘wrote’.
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By: Tony English on March 28, 2023
at 9:57 pm
Well, that is interesting!
You are right, I really did like Death of a Coast Watcher… and I hope you are slaving away at something new!
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By: Lisa Hill on March 28, 2023
at 10:33 pm
I’m too lazy to slave but I am working on a stand-alone sequel to DOACW, set in Sri Lanka. My rate of progress is about one bottle of shiraz per page.
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By: Tony English on March 29, 2023
at 9:21 am
*chortle*
So, finished by the end of the year, right?
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By: Lisa Hill on March 29, 2023
at 10:04 am
I have de Kretzer’s book here beside me but unread. I can’t decide which end of the book to start with but I love the concept. Lol🌻🤠
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By: TravellinPenguin on March 29, 2023
at 4:28 pm
Yes, it’s a dilemma. Why not choose the cover you like best!
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By: Lisa Hill on March 29, 2023
at 4:40 pm