Kingsolver and Pinckney win James Tait Black Prizes

Barbara Kingsolver and Darryl Pinckney have been awarded James Tait Black Prizes, presented by the University of Edinburgh since 1919 and the only major British book prizes judged by literature scholars and students.

Kingsolver won the £10,000 fiction prize for Demon Copperhead (Faber & Faber), described as “a poignant novel set in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia". The title also won this year’s Women’s Prize and the Pulitzer. 

Fiction Judge Dr Benjamin Bateman, of the University of Edinburgh, called Demon Copperhead “a captivating piece of realist literature which is exceptional across all of the dimensions we look for".

Pinckney won the £10,000 biography prize for Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan, published by riverrun. It is a memoir about the writer’s apprenticeship with authors Elizabeth Hardwick and Barbara Epstein and his introduction to the New York literary scene.

Biography judge Dr Simon Cooke, of the University of Edinburgh, said the title was “thoroughly absorbing: a vivid, nuanced, and moving tribute to Elizabeth Hardwick, a fascinating portrait of a place, time, and milieu, and a profound meditation on memory, friendship, and the literary life".

The James Tait Black Prizes are for the best works of fiction and biography during the previous 12 months.

The organisers say the academic integrity of the judging process is a hallmark of the James Tait Black Prizes. Each year the academic judge in each category works with a panel of doctoral researchers to critically assess the shortlisted works and decide on the winner.

Kingsolver’s book was chosen from a fiction shortlist that featured: Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi, translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth (Scribner, Simon & Schuster); Bolla by Pajtim Statovci, translated from Finnish by David Hackston (Faber & Faber); and After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (Galley Beggar Press).

Pinckney’s book triumphed in a biography shortlist also featuring Homesick by Jennifer Croft (Charco Press); A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors, translated from Danish by Caroline Waight (Pushkin Press) and A History of Water: Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History by Edward Wilson-Lee (William Collins).

Dr Bateman said: “Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead brings together past and present, repurposing the social realism of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield to address the current opioid epidemic in Appalachia. It is a searing indictment of corporate greed, a sensitive exploration of a community too often written off, and a hopeful endorsement of the healing power of art.”

Dr Cooke, said: “The biography panel found Come Back in September a literary memoir of great generosity in its sense of tribute to others, and a formally fascinating inquiry into the diverse idioms of life-writing. It strikes many notes, fusing dazzling conversational wit and poised elegy, and the sentences are so supple, surprising, and graceful – it’s a masterclass in tonal integrity. The book stayed with us, and we feel sure we’ll keep coming back to it.”