Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award goes to Peter Brathwaite and Joseph Zárate

British Barbadian opera singer and author Peter Brathwaite and Peruvian writer and journalist Joseph Zárate have been announced as the 2025 winners of the Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award.

The winners were announced at an event held at the British Library on 4th December and were selected from a seven-strong shortlist of writers. They will each be awarded £20,000 and a residency at the British Library. They will also have the opportunity to showcase their published work at future editions of the Hay Festival and will lead events at the British Library.

The remaining shortlisted projects by Elena Medel, Emma Warren, Lauren Working, Marie Mitchell and Ingrid Persaud will be awarded £2,500.

Braithwaite’s work, Not All of Me Will Die, is a non-fiction exploration of identity and history through the lens of his Barbadian and British heritage. Meanwhile, Zárate’s submission,

Todo nace en el agua y muere en ella, will be the first account of the Amazon River, written by a Latin American with Amazonian indigenous roots.

Now in its 14th year, the judging panel was chaired by Eccles Fisher Associates director and chair of judges Catherine Eccles.

Polly Russell, a judge on the panel and head of the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania at the British Library, said: "Peter’s project promises to uncover hidden collections and connections about Barbados in new and exciting ways, while Joseph’s project, drawing on his indigenous heritage and more than 300 interviews with people who live along the Amazon, will tell a new story of the river and region."