Smith, Ypi and Cin longlisted for Gordon Burn Prize

Ali Smith, Lea Ypi and Tice Cin are among those longlisted for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize. 

The £5,000 prize, which rewards the “boldest and most exciting" fiction and non-fiction, this year features a mixture of true crime, memoir, music and sport.  

Smith has been nominated for Companion Piece (Hamish Hamilton), while Ypi is up for Free: Coming of Age at the End of History (Allen Lane) and Cin has been recognised for Keeping the House (And Other Stories). 

The 12-strong longlist also includes About a Son (Phoenix) by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja (And Other Stories), Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Saraband), Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson (Granta), Oxblood by Tom Benn (Bloomsbury), The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury Circus), Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser (Atlantic), Wayward by Vashti Bunyan (White Rabbit) and Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Faber). 

This year’s longlist was selected by chair of the judges, author Denise Mina, alongside sportswriter and columnist Jonathan Liew, broadcaster Stuart Maconie, artist Heather Phillipson and writer Chitra Ramaswamy.  

Mina said: “What a joy it has been to read these diverse and wonderful books. Our longlist presented itself quite naturally. Each and every one of these books manages to entertain, enthral and challenge, recalling Gordon Burn’s own work and areas of interest.” 

The winner, who will get the chance for a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish Borders alongside the £5,000 prize, will be announced at Durham Book Festival on 13th October. 

The prize is run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival. It commemorates the Newcastle-born writer Gordon Burn, who died in 2009, and seeks to celebrate those who follow in his footsteps