Gatward and Stepanova shortlisted for James Tait Black awards

Small presses feature strongly on the shortlist of the James Tait Black Prizes, worth £10,000 apiece, with nominations in for Galley Beggar’s Uschi Gatward and Fitzcarraldo’s Maria Stepanova.

Shortlisted for the Fiction award are Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge (Serpent’s Tail), a novel inspired by one of the first Black doctors in the US; A Shock by Keith Ridgway (Picador), about interlocking lives on London’s fringes; Memorial by Bryan Washington (Atlantic), a debut about two men falling in and out of love; and the short story collection English Magic (Galley Beggar), by Gatward, who died in January.

Meanwhile on the shortlist for the Biography prize are essay collection A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (Allen Lane); Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music by Amit Chaudhuri (Faber), an autobiographical exploration; In Memory of Memory: A Romance by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale (Fitzcarraldo Editions), telling the story of a Russian Jewish family; and Burning Man: The Ascent of D H Lawrence by Frances Wilson (Bloomsbury).

Fiction judge Benjamin Bateman of the University of Edinburgh said of the shortlist: "At a time of extreme geopolitical unrest, these impressive works of contemporary fiction remind us of the local attachments and everyday intimacies that sustain people during difficult times." Biography judge Simon Cooke, also of the university, described each title on the Biography shortlist as being "both an illuminating inquiry into the relations between life and art, and a vivid, surprising and exhilarating artistic performance in its own right".

The winners of the awards, which are run by the University of Edinburgh, will be announced in August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.