Smith, Myers and Kennedy join judges as £10k Pleasure of Reading Prize returns

Ali Smith, Benjamin Myers and Louise Kennedy are joining the judging panel for the second year of the Pleasure of Reading Prize, run by literary charity Give a Book.

Smith, who won the inaugural prize in 2021, will be on the panel with the two authors alongside chair Lady Antonia Fraser and Victoria Gray, executive director of Give a Book. The prize recognises an author writing in English, who brings pleasure through their writing. Give a Book will be continuing its association with Bloomsbury, which sponsored the 2021 prize.

Myers recently published his sixth novel with Bloomsbury, The Perfect Golden Circle. His novel The Gallows Pole received a Roger Deakin Award and won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction and is now being adapted into a major BBC drama series. Beastings won the Portico Prize for Literature and Pig Iron won the Gordon Burn Prize, while Richard was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. His journalism has appeared in publications including the Guardian, New Statesman and New Scientist.

Kennedy’s debut novel Trespasses published to critical acclaim in April and will soon appear as BBC Radio 4’s "Book at Bedtime". The book follows a collection of short stories, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac (Bloomsbury). Her work has appeared in many literary journals and she has written for the Guardian, Irish Times and RTE Radio 1. She was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in both 2019 and 2020. Before starting her writing career, she spent nearly thirty years working as a chef.

The £10,000 prize is divided equally between the winning author and a Give a Book charitable project of their choice. In 2021, Smith chose to support Books for First Nighters and Breakfast Book Clubs. The prize is also supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Fraser, who is also a patron of Give a Book, said: “For me, lucky enough to learn when very young, reading is and always has been one of the great pleasures in life. This is why I strongly support Give a Book, the charity which believes in supplying books to people who would not otherwise have them – such as prisoners and disadvantaged children. This exciting prize combines the two – thanks a writer who has given outstanding pleasure as well as helping on the work of Give a Book.”