Poetry Society Members on Gladstone’s Library shortlist

WIR 2017Poetry Society Members Elaine Beckett (Bridport), Nancy Campbell (Ponteland), and Jacqueline Saphra (London) are all on the shortlist for Gladstone’s Library Writers in Residence Award for 20017.

In total, ten writers have been shortlisted for the prestigious award. The shortlist is made up of novels, poetry and creative non-fiction that, in the eyes of the panel of judges of authors, industry experts and members of the Gladstone’s Library team, best represent some of the most creative contemporary writing. To qualify for consideration, all applicants had to submit a book published in the last three years as well as a short piece of writing on liberal values. The strength of both was taken into consideration by the judges when drawing up the shortlist.

The ten shortlisted titles for 2017 are:

  • William Atkins, The Moor: A Journey into the English Wilderness (Faber & Faber, 2014)
  • Elaine Beckett, ‘Faber New Poets 13’ (Faber & Faber, 2016)
  • Penny Boxall, ‘Ship of the Line’ (Eyewear Publishing, 2014)
  • Caroline Brothers, The Memory Stones (Bloomsbury Circus, 2016)
  • Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Harmless Like You (Sceptre, 2016)
  • Nancy Campbell, Disko Bay (Enitharmon Press, 2015)
  • Lauren Elkin, Flâneuse: Women Write the City (Chatto & Windus, 2016)
  • Pippa Goldschmidt, The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space (Freight Books, 2015)
  • Antonia Honeywell, The Ship (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2015)
  • Mab Jones, Take Your Experience and Peel it (Indigo Dreams, 2016)
  • Jacqueline Saphra, If I Lay on my Back I Saw Nothing but Naked Women (The Emma Press, 2016)
  • Ruth Scurr, John Aubrey: My Own Life (Vintage, 2015)

Four of these authors will now be awarded a month’s residency at Gladstone’s Library, a creative community that is open to the public and based in the world’s only residential library. Recent winners have included Amy Liptrot (The Outrun), Natasha Pulley (The Watchmaker of Filigree Street), Susan Barker (The Incarnations), Rebecca Farmer (‘Not Really’), Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist), Wendy Cope (Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis), Salley Vickers (Miss Garnet’s Angel), Peter Moore (The Weather Experiment), Melissa Harrison (Rain) and Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent).

This year’s judging panel consists of Senior Strategy Director at FutureBrand and Trustee of Gladstone’s Library, Freddie Baveystock; writer and journalist Peter Moore; author and journalist Melissa Harrison; poet Judy Brown; Peter Francis, Warden of Gladstone’s Library and Director of Collections and Research at Gladstone’s Library, Louisa Yates. Judging takes place on Friday, 5th August and the winners will be announced on Monday, 3rd October at the National Liberal Club in London when the four winning authors will read from their work.

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29 June 2016