Ondaatje Prize

Not to be confused with Royal Canadian Geographical Society § Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration.

Ondaatje Prize
Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize
Awarded forwork of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, "evoking the spirit of a place"
Sponsored bySir Christopher Ondaatje
CountryUnited Kingdom
Presented byRoyal Society of Literature
First awarded2004 (2004)
WebsiteOfficial website

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.[1]

The prize bears the name of its benefactor Sir Christopher Ondaatje.[2] The prize incorporates the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, which was presented up to 2002 for regional fiction.[3]

Winners

Year Author Title Ref.
2004 Louisa Waugh Hearing Birds Fly
2005 Rory Stewart The Places In Between
2006 James Meek The People's Act of Love [4]
2007 Hisham Matar In the Country of Men [5]
2008 Graham Robb The Discovery of France [6]
2009 Adam Nicolson Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History [7]
2010 Ian Thomson The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica [8]
2011 Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes [9]
2012 Rahul Bhattacharya The Sly Company of People Who Care [10]
2013 Philip Hensher Scenes from Early Life [11]
2014 Alan Johnson This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood [12]
2015 Justin Marozzi Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood [13]
2016 Peter Pomerantsev Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia [14]
2017 Francis Spufford Golden Hill [15]
2018 Pascale Petit Mama Amazonica [16]
2019 Aida Edemariam The Wife’s Tale [17]
2020 Roger Robinson A Portable Paradise [18]
2021 Ruth Gilligan The Butchers (also published as The Butchers' Blessing) [19]
2022 Lea Ypi Free. Coming of Age at the End of History [20]
2023 Anthony Anaxagorou Heritage Aesthetics [21]

References

  1. ^ "RSL Ondaatje Prize". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  2. ^ "Christopher Ondaatje homepage". Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  3. ^ Jury, Louise (6 April 2004). "Gulag book shortlisted for Ondaatje Prize". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  4. ^ Pauli, Michelle (23 May 2006). "Guardian writer wins Ondaatje prize for Russian civil war novel". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  5. ^ Lea, Richard (3 May 2007). "Matar's tale of latterday Libya takes Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  6. ^ Dammann, Guy (29 April 2008). "£10,000 reward for The Discovery of France". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  7. ^ Flood, Alison (19 May 2009). "'Powerfully evocative' family history wins Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  8. ^ Flood, Alison (25 May 2010). "Ian Thomson wins £10,000 Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  9. ^ Flood, Allison (24 May 2011). "Ondaatje prize goes to Edmund de Waal". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  10. ^ Flood, Alison (29 May 2012). "2012 Ondaatje prize 2012 goes to debut novel by Rahul Bhattacharya". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  11. ^ Armitstead, Claire (14 May 2013). "Philip Hensher wins Ondaatje prize with novel on husband's childhood". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  12. ^ Flood, Alison (20 May 2014). "Alan Johnson's memoir of London slum childhood wins £10,000 Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  13. ^ Kerr, Michael (19 May 2015). "Justin Marozzi wins £10,000 RSL Ondaatje Prize". The Daily Telegraph.
  14. ^ Cain, Sian (23 May 2016). "'Anti-travelogue' on Putin's Russia wins £10,000 Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  15. ^ Kean, Danuta (8 May 2017). "Francis Spufford wins the Ondaatje prize with Golden Hill". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  16. ^ Flood, Alison (14 May 2018). "Ondaatje prize goes to 'mythic' poems about a mother's mental illness". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  17. ^ Flood, Alison (13 May 2019). "Ondaatje prize: Aida Edemariam wins for vivid biography of her grandmother". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  18. ^ Flood, Alison (4 May 2020). "Roger Robinson's poems of Trinidad and London win Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  19. ^ Flood, Alison (11 May 2021). "The Butchers: novel set in Irish BSE crisis wins Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  20. ^ "LEA YPI announced as winner of the 2022 RSL Ondaatje Prize for "Free"" (PDF). Royal Society of Literature. 4 May 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  21. ^ Creamer, Ella (10 May 2023). "Anthony Anaxagorou wins Ondaatje prize for collection of postcolonial poetry". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 May 2023.