Clanchy to chair Rathbones Folio Prize 2019 judges

Poet Kate Clanchy is to chair the judging panel for the 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize.
 
Clanchy will be joined on the panel by novelist Chloe Aridjis and poet and novelist Owen Sheers.  The panel will consider 80 titles, nominated by the Folio Academy, from a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, for this year’s prize. 

The eight-title shortlist will be revealed in April 2019 before the winner is announced on 20th May. 

Clancy said:  “So much has changed recently in the world of books, so many new, diverse voices have made themselves heard, so many genres have burst their banks – that it is easy to feel bewildered. So I feel lucky to be reading for the Rathbones Folio Prize.”

The Rathbones Folio Prize is for the best English language book published in a given year.

Last year’s winner was Richard Lloyd Parry for  his non-fiction work Ghosts of the Tsunami (MCD), described by the TLS as “a breathtaking, extraordinary work of non-fiction.” Previous winners of the prize include George Saunders, Akhil Sharma and Hisham Matar.