Arts Foundation Award 'creative non-fiction' shortlist revealed

Writers Marina Benjamin and Joanna Walsh, author/illustrator Oliver Kugler and poet Jack Underwood are on the shortlist for a new prize for creative non-fiction writing.

The £10,000 prize is a new category in the Arts Foundation Awards 2017, organised by The Arts Foundation, and is for “genre-blurring” works that combines elements of fiction and non-fiction.

Benjamin is the author of The Middlepause (Scribe), a memoir she wrote about her hysterectomy, whilst Walsh is an essayist and writers of works such as Hotel (Bloomsbury). Kugler is a “reportage illustrator” who won a V&A illustration award for A Tea In Tehran (Rollin Publications), and Underwood is a poet and critic for Poetry London and Poetry Review.

Dr Julie Wheelwright, one of the judges of the award, said: “All of the candidates were writing to an extremely high standard and the ideas were varied but had great potential. I was also really encouraged to see there were so many hybrid genres from candidates with a background in philosophy and poetry and also an emphasis on nature writing. These reflect a growing interest not only in those subjects but in the form in which they are writing.”

The shortlisted authors will speak about why they write creative non-fiction at an event at City University next month.

The winner of the award will then be announced on 25th January along with the winners of the other prizes run by The Arts Foundation, which as for essay films, furniture design, jazz competition, live art and materials composition. Winning artists in each category are will receive £10,000 with £1,000 going to each runner up.