Zephaniah, Crewe and Crooks and more among winners of the Society of Authors' Awards 2024

The winners of this year’s Society of Authors’ Awards have been unveiled, with the late Benjamin Zephaniah and illustrator Nila Aye winning The Queen’s Knickers Award while writers Tom Crewe, Jacqueline Crooks and  Cecile Pin are among the list of 31 winners. 

Zephaniah and Aye won for their in-verse picture book People Need People (Orchard Books), described by judge Cerrie Burnell as "moving, humorous and lovely all at once". 

Worth over £100,000, the  SoA Awards is the UK’s biggest literary prize fund. This year the prize money will be shared between the 31 winners who will be celebrated at a ceremony in London’s Southwark Cathedral on 20th June. Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, SoA management committee chair, will host the awards and include a keynote speech from author Kate Mosse. 

Prizes include the Betty Trask Prize for a first novel by a writer under 35, worth over £26,000; the Eric Gregory Awards for a collection of poems by a poet under 30, with each of the six winners receiving £4,725; and the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for a first novel by a writer over 60, this year awarded to Crooks for Fire Rush (Jonathan Cape). The full list of awards can be found here. 

Lorraine Wilson won the ADCI (Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses) Literary Prize, now in its third year, for Mother Sea (Fairlight Books). Judge Nii Ayikwei Parkes called it a "wonderfully realised, quietly political novel that speaks to some of the most urgent issues of our time". 

Pin is one of five writers who won the Somerset Maugham Awards, which celebrate works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by writers under 30. Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape) by Momtaza Mehri was also a Somerset Maugham winner alongside Iona Lee, Phoenicia Rogerson and Katherine Pangonis. The judges noted: "This year’s Somerset Maugham Award shortlist was made up of young voices who used poetry, non-fiction, fiction, or other forms entirely, to explore history in unique fashions... We encourage more presses and imprints to submit works next year, to expand the possibilities of this prize." Pin was also the runner-up for the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize for her Women’s Prize for Fiction-longlisted novel, Wandering Souls (Fourth Estate). 

Crewe took home the Betty Trask Prize for The New Life (Chatto & Windus), an "exquistely crafted, multifaceted, luminous" novel, said judge Michael Donkor. Fellow judge Alex Preston added: "It’s extraordinary to read a debut novel that has such subtlety, such range of both language and feeling. Rarely do I feel so certain of the truth of that first novel cliché: this is the start of a dazzling career." 

Wenyan Lu won the £10,000 McKitterick Prize for her debut novel, The Funeral Cryer (Atlantic Books), which was declared "unforgettable" by judge Rónán Hession. The tragi-comic tale follows a professional mourner in contemporary rural China who takes a leap of faith to change her life. 

Speaking about the awards, keynote speaker Mosse said: "All literary awards celebrate outstanding, exceptional, imaginative, ground-breaking work. What I love about the SoA Awards is that they honour many authors, working in a whole range of disciplines and at different stages in their writing careers.  Now, more than ever, books matter – they offer us the chance to stand in other people’s shoes, to hear about lives other than our own, they encourage empathy and conversation. I know that when we gather together on 20th June, we will do so in the spirit of every voice mattering, every story being something to celebrate.’

Crooks commented: "This award means a great deal to me, as it validates my work and serves as a powerful recognition of the value of Afro-Caribbean artistry and the community’s contribution to the cultural capital of this country. I hope this award inspires more writers from the Fire Rush world to share their stories."