Gordon Burn Prize pot doubles as Terri White named chair of judges

The prize pot for the Gordon Burn Prize has doubled to £10,000 thanks to new sponsorship from Newcastle University, and journalist, screenwriter and author Terri White has been named its new chair of judges.

The Gordon Burn Prize was launched by New Writing North, Faber & Faber and the Gordon Burn Trust in 2012 and first awarded in 2013 to Benjamin Myers. For 10 years, the prize was awarded as part of Durham Book Festival. Today’s announcement heralds a new three-year partnership with Newcastle University. The Gordon Burn Prize 2023–24 will be announced at Newcastle’s Northern Stage in March 2024, with an accompanying programme of activities for university staff and students.

As well as winning £10,000, the winner of the Gordon Burn Prize will have the opportunity to take up a writing retreat at the late author’s cottage. In 2022, Preti Taneja won the Gordon Burn Prize for Aftermath (And Other Stories), a work of narrative non-fiction that blurs genres and form to understand terror, trauma and grief.

White, whose Coming Undone: A Memoir was published by Canongate in 2020, said: "As a passionate fan of Gordon Burn’s work, it’s utterly wild that I’ll have the honour of chairing the prize. Much like Burn’s work was without peer, the Gordon Burn Prize is unlike any other literary prize in the world, recognising work that is relentlessly radical, genre-busting, blazing and bold. I can’t wait to join the celebration of literature that treads the same pioneering path."

The prize seeks to celebrate the writing of those whose work follows in Burn’s footsteps, identifying and celebrating brilliant writing that often finds its readers outside the mainstream. The prize covers both fiction and non-fiction, awarding books that are fearless in their ambition and execution, often pushing boundaries and challenging readers’ expectations.

Professor James Annesley, acting dean of culture and creative arts at Newcastle University, said: “Newcastle University is delighted to be sponsoring the Gordon Burn Prize in partnership with New Writing North, The Gordon Burn Trust and Faber & Faber. With its deep regional connection and its concern for the best and most challenging of books, the Gordon Burn Prize speaks to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics’ world leading reputation for excellence in Creative Writing and Newcastle University’s wider commitment to culture and the arts.”

Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, said: “At a time when many literary prizes are struggling, we’re thrilled and very grateful to have new sponsors in Newcastle University and to be bringing the prize back to Gordon’s home city. We’re really excited for people here to celebrate Gordon’s writing and the work of those writers who follow in his footsteps and to extend our university partnerships in this way with Newcastle.”

Carol Gorner, founder of the Gordon Burn Trust, commented: “We are all very excited that the prize is going to be based in Newcastle. Gordon was absolutely passionate about it, and missed it so much that he chose the Scottish Borders to write in, so that he could be closer to the city. There is so much of his history there, and he would have been absolutely thrilled to know that through the Prize more wonderful writers will be connected to him and Newcastle in the future.”

The Gordon Burn Prize 2023–24 will open for entry in May 2023 to works in English published between 1st July 2022 and 30th November 2023 by writers of any nationality. The longlist will be announced in November 2023 and the shortlist in January 2024, before the prize ceremony in March 2024.