Boyd and Ashworth to judge Gordon Burn Prize

Novelists William Boyd and Jenn Ashworth are to judge the Gordon Burn Prize 2016, alongside journalist and writer Rachel Cooke and artist and author Harland Miller.

The Gordon Burn Prize was launched in 2012 to remember the late Faber author of novels including Fullalove and Born Yesterday: The News as Novel, and non-fiction including Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West; Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion and Sex & Violence, Death & Silence; Encounters with recent art.

According to Faber, Burn was a "literary polymath who wrote about subjects as seemingly disparate as serial killers, celebrity, sport and art, often blurring the line between fact and fiction."

The publisher said: "His approach was bold, applying a journalistic tenacity and rigour to the fictional process, while using fictional narrative techniques in his factual reporting. His writing remains as fresh and extraordinary today as when his debut novel, the Whitbread Prize-winning Alma Cogan, was published in 1991."

The Gordon Burn Prize, run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival, seeks to "celebrate the writing of those whose work follows in his footsteps".

Dan Davies won the Gordon Burn Prize in 2015 for his biography In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile (Quercus). The previous winners are Paul Kingsnorth for The Wake  (Unbound) in 2014, and Ben Myers for Pig Iron (Bluemoose Books) in 2013.

The prize is now open for entry for published books written in English until Friday 18th March. The winner will be announced on 7th October 2016 at Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival produced by New Writing North. The winning writer will receive a cheque for £5,000 and the opportunity to undertake a writing retreat of up to three months at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish borders.