Two cover designs for V.V. Ganeshananthan’s ‘Brotherless Night’ and Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelganger,’ as used in releases of the 2024 Women’s Prize fiction and nonfiction winners in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Both Fiction and Nonfiction Wins Have Political Components
In an event at London’s Bedford Square Gardens this evening (June 13), the Women’s Prize Trust has announced the 2024 winners of its 29th Women’s Prize for Fiction and its first Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.
If some might see the Ganeshananthan-Klein wins as good for the North American markets, they’re also good for Penguin Random House, which publishes Ganeshananthan in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, and publishes Klein in the UK and Canada. Klein’s Doppelganger in the States is published by Macmillan.
Each of these authors wins a purse of £30,000 (US$38,229), which is anonymously endowed in the case of the fiction award and by England’s Charlotte Aitken Trust for the nonfiction honor. Ganeshananthan also receives a copy of the bronze statuette, the Bessie, by Grizel Niven. Klein receives a copy of the limited edition Charlotte figurine from the Aitken Trust.
Monica Ali
The fiction jury chair Monica Ali, in commenting on the win for Ganeshananthan, is quoted, saying, “Brotherless Night is a brilliant, compelling, and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war. In rich, evocative prose, Ganeshananthan creates a vivid sense of time and place and an indelible cast of characters.
Her commitment to complexity and clear-eyed moral scrutiny combines with spellbinding storytelling to render Brotherless Night a masterpiece of historical fiction.”
Suzannah Lipscomb
And Suzannah Lipscomb, who has chaired the nonfiction jury, speaks to Klein’s Doppelganger, saying, “‘This brilliant and layered analysis demonstrates humor, insight and expertise. Klein’s writing is both deeply personal and impressively expansive.
“Doppelganger is a courageous, humane, and optimistic call-to-arms that moves us beyond black and white, beyond Right and Left, inviting us instead to embrace the spaces in between.”
Kate Mosse
You’ll recall that these two contests are open to any woman writing in English, regardless of nationality, country of residence, age, or subject matter.
Each books eligible for this year’s prize cycles had to be the work of a single author published in the United Kingdom between April 1 of last year and March 31.
The event tonight was hosted by the founding director of the trust, Kate Mosse.
Entering the ‘Golden Sticker’ Stage
It will be interesting to see if the Women’s Prize(s) program will this year join the £50,000 Booker Prizes (for fiction and international translation), the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, and the £25,000 British Academy Book Prize for Cultural Understanding in reporting some of the market sales impact that a win can have for a novel, its author, and publisher.
Without knowing the effects seen by booksellers, publishers, and authors following award winners’ announcements, the world publishing industry must simply take it on faith that the “golden sticker” on a cover in a bookstore can increase the likelihood of a sale. With each year of such deep and faithful investments in funds, hard work, and attention being poured into so many awards contests in world book markets—most prominently in the UK—the question of demonstrable marketing and bookselling impact grows only more pressing.
More on the Baillie Gifford Prize administration’s decision to take this step is here.
Reviewing the Shortlists
The Women’s Prize for Fiction
Jurors in the fiction prize this year are Monica Ali; Indira Varma; Anna Whitehouse; Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ; and Laura Dockrill. This prize is sponsored this year by Audible and Baileys.
The Women’s Prize for Nonfiction
Jurors in the nonfiction prize this year are Suzannah Lipscomb; Venetia La Manna; Nicola Rollock; Anne Sebba; and Kamila Shamsie. This prize is sponsored by Findmypast and a one-time donation from Jason Bartholomew.
More from Publishing Perspectives on international book and publishing awards programs is here. More from us on the Women’s Prize for Fiction is here, more on the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction is here, more on the United Kingdom’s book and publishing market is here, more on fiction overall is here, and more on nonfiction is here.
