Guardian First Book Award

The Guardian First Book Award was an annual literary award presented by The Guardian newspaper, recognising a book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspaper had sponsored from 1965. The Guardian First Book Award was discontinued after the 2015 award.

History The newspaper determined to change its book award after 1998, and during that year also hired Claire Armitstead as literary editor. At the inaugural First Book Award ceremony in 1999, she said that she was informed of the change, details to be arranged, by the head of the marketing department during her second week on the job. "By the time we left the room we had decided on two key things. We would make it a first book award, and we would involve reading groups in the judging process. This was going to be the people's prize." About the opening of the prize to nonfiction she had said in August, "readers do not segregate their reading into fiction or non-fiction, so neither should we." There was no restriction on genre; for example, both poetry and travel would be included in principle, and so would self-published autobiographies.

For the first rendition, 140 books were submitted, including a lot of nonfiction strongest "by far" in "a hybrid of travel-writing and reportage"; weak in science and biography. Experts led by Armitstead selected a longlist of 11 and Borders in Glasgow, London, Brighton and Leeds hosted reading groups that considered one book a week, September to November, and selected a shortlist of six. A panel of eight judges including two Guardian editors chose the winner. The newspaper called it "the first time the ordinary reading public have been involved in the selection of a major literary prize." In the event, the 1999 reading groups selected a shortlist including six novels, and all four groups favoured the novel Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Their second favourite was one of the travelogue and reporting hybrids, by Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker. The judges chose the latter, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families —"a horrifying but humane account of the Rwandan genocide, its causes and consequences", the newspaper called it in August.

The prize was worth £10,000 to the winner. Eligible titles were published in English, and in the UK within the calendar year.

Winners and finalists +Guardian First Book Award winners and finalists, 2010-2019YearAuthorTitleResult1999We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our FamiliesWinnerLighthouse StevensonsFinalistFinalistBoxy an StarFinalistGhostwrittenFinalistNo Place Like HomeFinalist2000White TeethWinnerHouse of LeavesFinalistFinalistNo LogoFinalistCatfish and Mandala: a Vietnamese OdysseyFinalist2001Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on EarthWinnerAnthony Blunt: His LivesFinalist and John EidinowWittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great PhilosophersFinalistCarter Beats the DevilFinalistFinalist2002Everything Is IlluminatedWinnerDon't Let's Go to the Dogs TonightFinalistFinalistMapping MarsFinalistFinalist2003Mountains of the MindWinnerBrick LaneFinalistInto the Silent LandFinalistStasilandFinalistVernon God LittleFinalist2004Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human BodyWinnerNatasha and Other Stories FinalistJonathan Strange & Mr Norrell FinalistGround Water FinalistFinalist2005Stuart: A Life BackwardsWinnerNo god but GodFinalistFinalistSightseeingFinalistMaximum City: Bombay Lost and FoundFinalist2006WinnerHarborFinalistPoppy ShakespeareFinalistIn the Country of MenFinalistEveryman's Rules for Scientific LivingFinalist2007Children of the RevolutionWinnerFinalistImperial Life in the Emerald CityFinalistGod's ArchitectFinalistWhat Was LostFinalist2008WinnerFinalistStalin's ChildrenFinalistGod's Own CountryFinalistFinalist2009WinnerFinalistFinalistFinalistFinalist2010Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John PiperWinnerBoxer, BeetleFinalistYour Presence is Requested at SuvantoFinalistBlack Mamba BoyFinalistIn Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of ErrorFinalist2011WinnerPigeon EnglishFinalistDown The Rabbit HoleFinalistFinalistFinalist2012WinnerBehind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai UndercityFinalistFinalistSandstorm: Libya in the Time of RevolutionFinalistTony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My MaFinalist2013WinnerWe Need New NamesFinalistSex and the CitadelFinalistBurial RitesFinalistKiss Me FirstFinalist2014Young Skins WinnerDo No Harm FinalistThe Night GuestFinalistAge of Ambition FinalistThings to Make and Break Finalist2015PhysicalWinnerMan v NatureFinalistFinalistNothing Is True and Everything Is PossibleFinalistGrief Is the Thing with FeathersFinalistFinalist

Guardian First Book Award

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