The Authors’ Club is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 Best First Novel Award is Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds (Hamish Hamilton).
The guest adjudicator, novelist Louisa Young, presented the £2,500 award at a reception at the National Liberal Club in London on 24 May. She said:
“Set on an imagined version of Trinidad and written in a welcoming, poetic English Patois, When We Were Birds carries us off into a rich and funny story of love and morals, where the dead are just as real as the living — not as generic spooky ghosts, but as individuals, emotionally important to themselves as well as to the living.”
Young faced the daunting task of selecting a winner from a terrific shortlist that included:
The Dictator’s Wife, by Freya Berry (Headline Review)
Tiepolo Blue, by James Cahill (Sceptre)
My Name Is Yip, by Paddy Crewe (Doubleday)
Black Butterflies, by Priscilla Morris (Duckworth)
The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn (Fig Tree)
The prize is for the debut novel of a British, Irish or UK-based author, first published in the UK. There is no age limit. The winning novel is selected by a guest adjudicator from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of Authors’ Club members, chaired by Lucy Popescu, who said:
“This is a mesmerizing debut about love and loss. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s lyrical prose and evocative imagery stayed with me long after the final page.”
This is the third time in recent years a book set in Trinidad has won. Claire Adam’s Golden Child scooped the prize in 2020 and Ingrid Persaud Love After Love won in 2021.
The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 69th year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain. Previous winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair, Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Kemp, Kevin Barry, Ros Barber, Hisayo Rowan Buchanan, Gail Honeyman, Guy Gunaratne, Claire Adam and Ingrid Persaud. Last year’s prize was awarded to Tish Delaney for Before My Actual Heart Breaks. Past adjudicators have included Alex Wheatle, Andrew Miller, Louise Doughty, AL Kennedy, Vikram Seth, Philip Hensher, Joanne Harris, Deborah Moggach and, going back further, Kingsley Amis and Compton Mackenzie.
The Authors’ Club was established by Walter Besant in 1891, the Club has provided a social meeting place for writers for over 130 years.
For further info on the award contact chair of the judges: lucyjpop@gmail.com