Anna McNuff wins £20K Kindle Storyteller Award

Anna McNuff has won this year's Kindle Storyteller Award for her account of a 5,500-mile cycling odyssey through South America. 

Llama Drama is the fourth book from the Gloucester-based athlete who has also chronicled running the length of New Zealand and cycling through every state in the US.

Llama Drama follows the author and her friend Faye as they embark on a six-month journey along the spine of the Andes. The synopsis explains: "With a limited grasp of Spanish, and the hope of meeting as many llamas as possible, the two friends set off on a spectacular adventure that takes them through jungle, across salt flats and past volcanoes."

The judges chose the winning book from a shortlist selected with significant input from readers, with reviews and ratings taken into account. The judging panel included TV presenter and author Claudia Winkleman, authors L J Ross and Mark Dawson, last year’s Kindle Storyteller Award winner Ian W Sainsbury, Sacha Black from the Alliance of Independent Authors and, from Amazon, EU Books director Simon Johnson and UK Books editor Jen Barrett.

Winkleman said: “Anna McNuff’s Llama Drama is simply hilarious. If anyone is watching and wants something witty and moving at the same time. Also, something empowering, then this is the one for them. I literally inhaled it.” 

In addition to the £20,000 prize money, McNuff will receive a marketing campaign to support the book on Amazon.co.uk, and the Golden Kindle award.

She said: “I’m just in shock, this is the best early Christmas present! I’m so honoured to win. The other shortlisted books were amazing. Some of the best things in life have come from spontaneous moments and that’s the reason I started self-publishing on Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s brought me to this place in time. I can’t wait to go on my next adventure!”

The Kindle Storyteller Award is in its fourth year in the UK and was established to recognise newly published work in the English language across any genre. The prize was open to all authors who published their book through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.co.uk between May 1­st and August 31st, 2020.

Simon Johnson, director of EU Books at Amazon, who chaired the judging panel, said: “The standard of entries this year was incredibly high and all the shortlisted titles were worthy of the nomination. The storytelling and characterisation of Anna McNuff’s travelogue transported us to South America and earned its place as the first-ever non-fiction winner of the Kindle Storyteller Award.”