Girl, Woman, Other, a novel by Brunel University London’s Professor Bernardine Evaristo, has been shortlisted for the renowned Gordon Burn Prize.
Launched in 2012 to recognise works that are fearless and uncompromising in their ambition and execution, the Gordon Burn Prize seeks to reward stories that challenge their readers expectations. Ten years on from the death of eponymous writer Gordon Burn, the prize has become one of the most highly anticipated on the literary landscape.
The 2019 award judges, author A.A. Dhand, artist Gary Hume, journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer, and musician Rachel Unthank, selected the shortlist and will announce the winner on 10 October 2019. The prize was open to both fiction and non-fiction titles by authors resident in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States of America.
The winning writer will receive £5,000 and the chance to undertake a writing retreat of up to three months at Gordon Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders.
Girl, Woman, Other, released in May 2019, follows the lives and struggles of twelve characters, mostly black British women, as they tell stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
Known for her experimental style and warm, wise, daring voice, Prof Evaristo has previously written eight books, plus drama, verse and criticism. She leads Brunel’s creative writing research and founded a string of inclusive initiatives, including the 2012 launch of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She is Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and an MBE.
The shortlist for the Gordon Burn Prize 2019 is:
For the Good Times, David Keenan (Faber)
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton)
Heads of the Colored People, Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Chatto & Windus)
Lanny, Max Porter (Faber)
The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker (Penguin)
This Brutal House, Niven Govinden (Dialogue)
Reported by:
Press Office,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 268965
press.office@brunel.ac.uk