One of the bonuses of being an Editorial Minion is that invites to really groovy literary events sometimes land in your inbox. The Best First Novel Award, presented by the Authors’ Club for the work of fiction writing deemed to be of the highest quality, released in the past year in the UK.
The longlist and shortlist are voted upon by a panel of members from the Authors’ Club itself, before a guest adjudictor, this year the novelist and memoirist Susie Boyt, selects the final winner. Boyt presented the award of £2,500 to the 2015 winner, A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray (Hutchinson), yesterday evening in the gorgeous surroundings of the National Liberals Club. It was a lovely, merry evening, and I will definitely be headed back to the Authors’ Club again.
The 2015 finalists were:
The Letter Bearer by Robert Allison (Granta)
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray (Hutchinson)
The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman (Weidenfeld)
Ishmael’s Oranges by Claire Hajj (Oneworld)
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (Penguin)
The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer (Sphere)
For more information on the Prize and the Authors’ Club, visit the Authors’ Club website, right here, or follow them on Twitter @AuthorsClub.