Key Dates 2023
Longlist February 2023
Shortlist March 2023
The winner will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club: Wed 24 May 2023
About the Prize:
The winning novel is selected by this year’s guest adjudicator Louisa Young from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of Authors’ Club members, chaired by Lucy Popescu.
The prize is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2022. The prize of £2500 exists to support UK-based authors, publishers and agents, so the novel must originate in the UK and not have been published anywhere else in the world before its UK publication
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.
Past winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair, Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Nicola Monaghan, Laura Beatty, 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.
Past adjudicators have included Alex Wheatle, Michele Roberts, Andrew Miller, Louise Doughty, AL Kennedy, Vikram Seth, Philip Hensher, Joanne Harris, Deborah Moggach and, going back further, Kingsley Amis and Compton Mackenzie.
About The Authors’ Club
Established by Walter Besant in 1891, the Club has provided a social meeting place for writers for 130 years.
Contact: lucyjpop@gmail.com