Isabella Hammad and Benjamin Myers shortlisted for £10k Ondaatje Prize

Isabella Hammad and Benjamin Myers are among the six-strong shortlist for the 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize, worth £10,000.

The 2024 award is judged by writers Francis Spufford, Jan Carson and Xiaolu Guo, who whittled down 194 entries to a shortlist of six – featuring novels, poetry and non-fiction, from both bigger publishers and independents. 

Multi-award-winning novelist Hammad could add to her trophy collection with Enter Ghost (Vintage), which follows a London-based actress returning to her native Palestine, where she joins a production of “Hamlet” in the West Bank. Guo called it “a captivating political and personal story from such a young and talented novelist”. 

Noreen Masud’s memoir, A Flat Place (Penguin Random House), explores Britain’s flatlands and the hidden histories they cover. “The writing is painfully honest, hauntingly so and yet not without a lyricality which I found deeply moving,” Carson said. “I’ve thought about Masud’s story often since reading this book and felt deeply grateful for the frank and inviting way with which she’s shared her story.” 

Meanwhile Myers’ Cuddy (Bloomsbury) was described by Spufford as “a kaleidoscopic novel of the North East of England, through five eras from Anglo-Saxon times to the present, brilliantly splintered and coloured and spun by Benjamin Myers.” He added: “A saint’s-eye song of praise to what the city of Durham is and has been.” 

Another Bloomsbury nod comes with Sheila Armstrong’s debut novel, Falling Animals, about an unidentified man, as told by those who crossed paths with him on the last day of his life. The title was described by Guo “a truly impressive debut from a storyteller who knows how to control the rhythm and poetry of her narrative”. 

David Nash’s debut poetry about rural landscapes – No Man’s Land (Dedalus) – is also on the list, which Guo called “a wonderful and rich exploration of flora and fauna in rural landscapes”. 

Fellow indie-published shortlistee Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors (Fitzcarraldo Editions) by Ian Penman “takes the reader on an absolute head-spin of a journey into the fractured and fracturing mind of late-20th-century Germany”, according to Carson.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the prize, which was founded in 2004 by the Royal Society of Literature (RLS) to celebrate outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evoke the spirit of a place.  

The winner of the £10,000 award will be announced on 14th May at Two Temple Place in London.