Local author shortlisted for ‘Writer in Residence’ award

Gladstone’s Library announce shortlist for Writers in Residence 2016, which includes local author and biographer Rose Collis.

Ten books have been shortlisted for Gladstone Library’s successful Writer in Residence programme.

The shortlist is made up of novels, poetry and creative non-fiction, best representing in the eyes of the shortlisters some of the most creative writing in the world today.

Four authors will win a month’s residency at Gladstone’s Library, a creative community that is open to the public and is based in the world’s only residential library.

Previous winners include:

Naomi Alderman (The Liars’ Gospel), Stella Duffy (Theodora, The Purple Shroud), Vanessa Gebbie (The Coward’s Tale), Melissa Harrison (Clay, At Hawthorn Time) Peter Jukes, Lesley McDowell (Unfashioned Creatures), Peter Moore (Damn His Blood, The Weather Experiment) and Sarah Perry (After Me Comes the Flood).

Previous winning poets include Katrina Naomi, (The Girl With the Cactus Handshake, Hooligans), Judy Brown (Loudness) and Pascale Petit (Fauverie).

Submission entries are drawn from all around the world. To qualify for consideration, all applicants had to submit a book published in the last three years and a short piece on liberal values.

The ten shortlisted titles are:

♦ Susan Barker, The Incarnations (Doubleday)

♦ Sue Hubbard, The Forgetting and Remembering of Air (Salt)

♦ Rose Collis, Death in the City (Hanover Press)

♦ Rebecca Farmer, Not Really (smith/doorstop)

♦ Alyson Hallett, Suddenly Everything (Poetry Salzburg)

♦ Jason Hewitt, The Dynamite Room (Simon & Schuster)

♦ Tung-Hui Hu, Greenhouses, Lighthouses (Copper Canyon Press)

♦ Amy Liptrot, The Outrun (Canongate)

♦ Katharine Norbury, The Fish Ladder (Bloomsbury Circus)

♦ Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Bloomsbury Circus)

The Warden of Gladstone’s Library, Peter Francis, said: “The list represents a wonderful blend of established, newly published and as-yet unpublished writers. Our shortlist seems to develop organically, to include long-and short-form fiction, poetry, biography and creative non-fiction. We are delighted to be able to announce such a strong shortlist and we’re sure that those of us who are judging have their work cut out”.

The judging panel consists of:

♦ Freddie Baveystock: Strategy Director of Rufus Leonard and Trustee of Gladstone’s Library

♦ Richard Beard: Novelist and Director of the National Academy of Writing

♦ Peter Francis: Warden of Gladstone’s Library

♦ Francesca Haig: Novelist and academic

♦ Sarah Perry: Novelist

♦ Louisa Yates: Director of Collections and academic

Judging will take place on Monday, August 10 and winners will be announced on October 12.

The 2016 scheme will be launched at an exclusive salon at London’s National Liberal Club, where the four winners will read from their work, accompanied by previous Writers-in-Residence.