Nabugodi wins £10k Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award

Mathelinda Nabugodi has won the £10,000 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award for her "engaging and fascinating" work of non-fiction. 

Nabugodi's "The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive" was chosen from a shortlist of three. The two runners-up are Yasmine Awwad for "The Shrills" and Sophie Meadows for "The Frog". Both titles are works of fiction and each author will receive £1,000.

The annual prize is awarded to a first-time writer whose work demonstrates literary talent but who needs support to complete their first book. This can be fiction, non-fiction or short stories. To enter, writers—who must reside within the British Commonwealth or Ireland and whose work must be written in the English language—were required to submit 15,000-20,000 words of literary merit.

The announcement was made via the foundation's social media channels, in an online ceremony hosted by chair of judges Colm Tóibín.

"The three shortlisted writers could not have been more different," Tóibín said. "'The Shrills' by Yasmine Awwad created an atmosphere that was edgy, exciting and totally credible. The domestic conflict had an aura that was intimate and fierce; the scenes when the young women began to live the lives they dreamed of had great energy.

"Sophie Meadows’ 'The Frog' dealt also with restriction and freedom, also with parents and their daughter. But this novel is set in Elizabethan England; it established its period with flair and careful detail. It also set up areas of conflict and possibility that open space for drama as the novel unfolds.

"In the end, the award went to Mathelinda Nabugodi for 'The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive' because of its ambition and scope, but also because of the quality of the enquiring voice in the book, a voice sometimes tentative and searching, then sure of its scholarship, then puzzled by some large absence in the archive, then engrossed by a poem, an essay, a letter. All the time, that voice made the reader become engaged both emotionally and intellectually in the quest to re-see and re-imagine and re-read the past."

Nabugodi said: "Winning the DRF Writers Award is such a wonderful validation of my work. I am so gratified to know that my attempt to stage a fresh and honest encounter with the Romantic archive has resonated with the judges and all the prize readers."

The DRF was set up in 2015 in tribute to the late literary agent Rogers following her unexpected death in 2014, to continue to seek out and support emerging talent. Rogers set up her own agency in 1967 and 20 years later formed RCW with Gill Coleridge and Pat White.  

Coleridge, director of the foundation, said of three finalists: "Deborah Rogers was never more excited than when she had discovered an extraordinary new voice, and would have been thrilled to read the work of these three talented writers at the beginning of their careers. 

"The notable success of the previous finalists of the 2016, 2018 and 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award has already brought distinction and renown to the foundation. We are confident that the talented winners here tonight will enhance and continue that trajectory and we send them our very best wishes as they embark on their careers."