Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award

The Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award is given annually to two writers to support their work on a forthcoming book, either fiction or non-fiction, relating to the Americas.[1] It is supported by the Hay Festival and the British Library's Eccles Centre for American Studies. The winners each receive £20,000, divided into four quarterly grants, and have a research residency at the Eccles Centre, with curatorial support, and opportunities to promote their work at Hay Festival events in the UK and elsewhere.[2][3] The award was previously known as the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award[4] and the Eccles British Library Writers Award.[5]

Winners

Past winners, and the books (now published or as yet unpublished) for which they won their awards, include:[2]

  • 2012:
    • Sheila Rowbotham: Rebel Crossings: New Women, Free Lovers, and Radicals in Britain and the United States (Verso, 2016)
    • Naomi Wood: Mrs Hemingway (Picador, 2014)
  • 2013:
    • Andrea Wulf: The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost Hero of Science (John Murray, 2015)
    • John Burnside: Ashland and Vine (Jonathan Cape, 2017)
  • 2014:
    • Olivia Laing: The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (Picador, 2016)
    • Erica Wagner: Chief Engineer: The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge (lBloomsbury, 2017)
  • 2015:
  • 2016:
    • William Atkins: The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places (Faber, 2018)
    • Alison MacLeod: Tenderness (Bloomsbury, 2021)
  • 2017:
    • Hannah Kohler: Catspaw[7]
    • Bob Stanley: Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop (Faber, 2022)
  • 2018:
  • 2019:
    • Rachel Hewitt: In Her Nature (Chatto & Windus, 2023)
    • Sara Taylor: Children of Sorrow[8]
  • 2020:
  • 2021:
    • Pola Oloixarac: Atlas Literario del Amazonas [Literary Atlas of the Amazon]
    • Imaobong Umoren: Empire Without End: A New History of Britain and the Caribbean
  • 2022:
    • Philip Clark: Sound and the City
    • Javier Montes for Trópico de Londres [Tropic of London]
  • 2023:[3]
  • 2024[9]
  • 2025:[10][11]
    • Peter Brathwaite: Not All of Me Will Die
    • Joseph Zarate: Todo nace en el agua y muere en ella

References

  1. ^ Bayley, Sian. "Six writers shortlisted for £20k Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer's Award". The Bookseller. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b "The Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award". www.bl.uk. British Library. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Writer's Award 2023 goes to Ayanna Lloyd Banwo and Jarred McGinnis". Hay Festival. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  4. ^ "The Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award". www.bl.uk. British Library Press Office. 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Eccles British Library Writers Award 2018 winners announced". The British Library. 21 November 2017. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  6. ^ "The two winners of the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award are announced". www.bl.uk. British Library. 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  7. ^ "2017 Eccles British Library Writer's Award". www.bl.uk. 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  8. ^ "Sara Taylor wins Eccles British Library Writer's Award". www.newwriting.net. University of East Anglia. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  9. ^ "Writer's Award 2024 winners". The British Library. 30 November 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  10. ^ "Writer's Award 2025 goes to Peter Brathwaite and Joseph Zárate". Hay Festival. 5 December 2025. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  11. ^ Spanoudi, Melina (6 December 2024). "Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer's Award goes to Peter Brathwaite and Joseph Zárate". The Bookseller. Retrieved 19 December 2024.