Karunatilaka, Anaxagorou and Holloway longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize

Shehan Karunatilaka, Anthony Anaxagorou and Philippa Holloway are among the writers longlisted for the £10,000 Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Ondaatje Prize.

The prize, sponsored by Sir Christopher Ondaatje, is given to an outstanding work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that "best evokes the spirit of a place". Nine authors have been longlisted for this year’s prize, selected by judges Samira Ahmed (chair), Roger Robinson and Joelle Taylor. 

Karunatilaka made the shortlist with his Booker Prize-winning The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort of Books), Anaxagorou with Heritage Aesthetics (Granta Poetry) and Holloway with The Half-life of Snails (Parthian Books). Seán Hewitt’s All Down Darkness Wide (Vintage), is also on the list, as is Michelle de Kretser’s Scary Monsters (Allen & Unwin) and Zaffar Kunial’s England’s Green (Faber & Faber). 

The remaining three books on the shortlist are Darren McGarvey’s The Social Distance Between Us (Ebury Press), Priscilla Morris’, Black Butterflies (Duckworth) and Marguerite Poland’s A Sin of Omission (EnvelopeBooks). 

Ahmed said: “I’ve loved how many of these books celebrate the endurance of love and decency in the face of injustice—from 19th-century British-ruled South Africa, to the nuclear power politics of Cumbria and Ukraine, and the tearing apart of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War.” 

First awarded in 2004, the premise and broad remit of the prize creates unique lists of "outstanding works and authors that you would not usually find sitting side by side". Previous recipients of the prize have included Aida Edemariam, Ruth Gilligan, Alan Johnson and Hisham Matar. Last year’s winner was Lea Ypi with Free (Allen Lane, 2022), a coming of age memoir set amid political upheaval in Albania. 

The RSL Ondaatje Prize is one of 10 annual awards and prizes presented by the RSL, which aim to bring a wide community of writers and readers together in celebration of the breadth of literature today. The 2023 RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlist will be announced on 24th April, with the winner announced on 10th May at Two Temple Place in London.