Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award 2025 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2025 Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award has been announced. The award is given annually to two writers in the early stages of a new book relating to the Americas. The £20,000 prize is now in its 14th year.

The seven writers on the shortlist are:

• British-Barbadian opera singer and author Peter Brathwaite
• Spanish novelist, essayist and poet Elena Medel
• British Irish music journalist and broadcaster Emma Warren
• Peruvian writer and journalist Joseph Zárate
• Historian and literary scholar Lauren Working
• British-Caribbean writer, chef and mental health advocate Marie Mitchell
• Trinidadian writer and artist Ingrid Persaud

The two winners will hold the Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award for one year from 1st January 2025. Each winner will receive £20,000 in four quarterly grants, as well as a residency at the British Library. They will also get the chance to appear at future Hay Festival editions with their published work, and have the opportunity to work with the Eccles Institute to "develop and facilitate activities and events related to their research at the British Library".

The award is judged by a panel comprising Eccles Fisher Associates director, Catherine Eccles; Hay Festival international director, Cristina Fuentes La Roche; head of the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania at the British Library, Polly Russell; historian Colin Grant; and deputy head of the Eccles Institute, Mercedes Aguirre.

The remaining shortlisted projects will also receive £2,500 to aid their project thanks to the support of the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Russell said: “We are so excited about the Writer’s Award shortlist for 2025. It includes memoir, history, biography, fiction and, for the first time, a narrative cookery book. Each project focuses on a fascinating aspect of the Americas through the British Library’s collection and, with this group of outstanding writers, making a final decision on the winners will be harder than ever.”
Fuentes La Roche said: “This year’s Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Writer’s Award shortlist offers a snapshot of the issues provoking and occupying writers on the Americas today. You will find endless inspiration in the broad mix of ideas offered here. Any one of these would make a worthy winner and we look forward to supporting and sharing their work.” 

The winners will be announced at an awards reception at the British Library on Wednesday 4th December.