Lewis, Daut win James Tait Black prizes
In the UK, Shady Lewis and Marlene L Daut have been awarded the James Tait Black Prizes for fiction and biography, respectively.
Lewis was awarded the fiction prize for the novel On the Greenwich Line (Peirene Press), translated by Katharine Halls, which “follows an Egyptian-born housing officer navigating the lives of migrants and refugees in East London”, according to the prize announcement.
Daut was awarded the biography prize for The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe (Yale University Press), “which tells the extraordinary story of a formerly enslaved man who rose to become the only king in Haiti’s history”, said the prize announcement.
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Prizes are awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh and are judged by postgraduate students and senior academics at the university. Each winning author receives £10,000.
University of Edinburgh head of the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Alex Thomson, said, “This year’s James Tait Black Prize winners demonstrate the remarkable power of literature to illuminate lives, histories and communities that are often overlooked.
“On the Greenwich Line … is a deeply humane and sharply observed novel about migration and belonging in contemporary Britain, while The First and Last King of Haiti … offers a powerful re-examination of Haiti’s revolutionary history through the life of Henry Christophe.
“Together, these works reflect the ambition, originality and global perspective that the prizes have celebrated for more than a century.”
The winners of last year’s prizes were My Heavenly Favourite (Lucas Rijneveld, Faber), for fiction, and My Great Arab Melancholy (Lamia Ziadé, Pluto Press), for nonfiction.
More information is available on the award website.
Related:
Category: Awards International awards International news
