Warwick Prize for Writing 2013 - Longlist announced
Warwick Prize for Writing
Works by Australian authors Thomas Keneally, Robert Gray and Amy Espeseth are featured on the longlist for the third Warwick Prize for Writing, announced by Monash University's UK alliance partner.
The list of 12 titles pits novelists and poets against non-fiction authors including a theoretical physicist and an academic psychologist. Each stands to win the coveted biennial prize, valued at £25,000 [$41,000AUD].
The prize, run by the University of Warwick, is unique as an international, cross-disciplinary award open to substantial pieces of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. This year, for the first time, the nominations process has been expanded to include Monash University, following the creation of the Monash Warwick Alliance. Staff and students at both universities were invited to make nominations from which the longlist was chosen by the judging panel.
Monash Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ed Byrne AO joined acclaimed writer Marina Warner CBE on the judging panel, which is chaired by Professor Ian Sansom of the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.
On announcing the longlist, Professor Ian Sansom said, “This is an extraordinary longlist and demonstrates exactly why the Warwick Prize is unique. We have here books in every genre, from all around the world. The only difficulty now will be choosing a winner from among them.”
The Warwick Prize for Writing 2013 longlist is:
- Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science by Jim Al-Khalili (Penguin) – Non-fiction
- The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape) - Fiction
- Sufficient Grace by Amy Espeseth (Scribe) - Fiction
- Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine (Icon Books) –Non-fiction
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (4th Estate) - Fiction
- River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (John Murray) - Fiction
- Cumulus by Robert Gray (John Leonard Press) - Poetry
- The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (John Murray) – Fiction
- Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret (Chatto & Windus) – Fiction
- Book of Sins by Nidaa Khoury (House of Nehesi Publishers) - Poetry
The titles include six fiction, three non-fiction and three poetry books. From the golden age of Arabic science to 19th century opium merchants in India, and from the Australian war effort in France to the ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British landscape, the longlist highlights the prize’s diversity and international scope. Other themes include Palestinian poetry, a study of the claimed differences between the sexes and an adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad.
A number of the writers are already prize winners, including Thomas Keneally, Julian Barnes, Jonathan Franzen, Robert Gray, Robert MacFarlane and Alice Oswald.
Naomi Klein was the inaugural winner of the prize in 2009, for her book The Shock Doctrine, an exposé of how a privileged few are making millions from worldwide disasters. Peter Forbes won the prize in 2011 for Dazzled and Deceived, a fascinating story of mimicry and camouflage in nature, art and warfare.
A shortlist of six titles will be announced in August and the winner will be revealed in late September.
Further information is available at the Warwick Prize for Writing website.