Tom Crewe and Michael Magee shortlisted for £10k Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award

Four "vital" and "passionate" books by Tom Crewe, Michael Magee, Noreen Masud and Momtaza Mehri have been shortlisted for The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award. 

The Charlotte Aitken Trust has increased the prize sum to £10,000. Each shortlistee also receives £1,000. The winner will be announced in a ceremony at Canova Hall in Brixton, London, on 19th March 2024.

Crewe is in the running for his debut about "19th-Century forbidden desire", The New Life (Vintage), which won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature, and was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Magee has been shortlisted for his debut novel Close to Home (Hamish Hamilton) — "a striking and vivid portrayal of young, working-class life in Northern Ireland" that won the 2023 Rooney Prize for Literature and the Nero Book Awards for Debut Fiction.

Masud is competing for the award with her "raw and radical" autobiography, A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton), which is also longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024. Moreover, on the list for her debut poetry collection Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape) is Mehri — the winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

Cal Flyn, Sally Rooney and Max Porter are all recent winners of the award, which returned to the literary prize scene following a seven-year break in 2015. The 2022 winner was Tom Benn, who was awarded the prize for his book Oxblood (Bloomsbury).

Johanna Thomas-Corr, chief literary critic for the Times and the Sunday Times, chaired the judging panel comprising Booker-winning writer and novelist Anne Enright, novelist and critic Mendez, author and critic James McConnachie, poet Daljit Nagra and novelist Catriona Ward.

"What impressed me most was their attentiveness to the world around them and their commitment to telling complex and often tough truths, as well as the unique ways in which each has made space for humour in their work," Corr said of the shortlisted works. "The skill, heart and maturity at play in these books gives hope for the future of the written word," Enright added. 

McConnachie commented: "Our four shortlisted books are so gloriously different but what unites them is that they are all books that believe in the possibility of change — both in how we write and think about the world, and in what the world can be." Ward added: "The four finalist books tell vital, passionate stories about the heart, the mind and desire — about how we change the world and how place changes us in turn. These young writers display extraordinary talent and imagination and I look forward to following their long, successful careers for years to come."

Retail partners Waterstones came on board for the 30th anniversary year in 2022, and are supporting the prize with bespoke content across all of their channels. The four authors will also attend a public event in a central London Waterstones on Monday, 18th March, hosted by Sebastian Faulks, chair of the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

This year, the shadow panel of judges has been reinstated for the first time since 2020, meaning that four book bloggers will decide on their own winner ahead of the announcement. They will also interview the shortlisted authors for the series "Readers on Writers", which will be published on the Young Writer Award website.

The prize’s media partner, Granta Magazine, will publish exclusive extracts from all four titles on its website. Meanwhile, The British Council will be advocating the shortlisted authors to international audiences, helping them to "forge new literary connections".

The award is also working to "extend its partnership network" across the literary world.