Join us in Durham for the annual Gordon Burn Prize ceremony, as we celebrate the year’s most dazzlingly bold and forward-thinking books.
The six-strong shortlist of fiction and non-fiction titles, published between July 2020 and July 2021, was selected by chair of the judges, author Denise Mina; writer and poet Derek Owusu; novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie; and literary journalist and editor Sian Cain.
Over the evening, each author will introduce and read from their shortlisted book, before the winner is awarded £5000. There will also be a special performance by writer and musician Willy Vlautin.
The Gordon Burn Prize 2021 shortlist is:
Come Join Our Disease, Sam Byers
A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ní Ghríofa
A Little Devil in America, Hanif Abdurraqib
Luckenbooth, Jenni Fagan
Mrs Death Misses Death, Salena Godden
Sea State, Tabitha Lasley
The Gordon Burn Prize, founded in 2012, remembers the late author of novels including Fullalove and Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel, and non-fiction including Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West and Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion.
The prize is run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival.
Now in its ninth year, the prize seeks to celebrate those who follow in Gordon Burn’s footsteps by recognising literature that is fearless in both ambition and execution. The works recognised often make the reader think again, playing with style or genre, pushing boundaries or diverging from the mainstream literary culture.
Peter Pomerantsev won the Gordon Burn Prize in 2020 for This is Not Propaganda, his study on the war against reality. Previous winners have included David Keenan’s novel For the Good Times, set during the height of the Troubles in 1970s Belfast (2019); Census (2018), Jesse Ball’s fable inspired by his late brother; and Denise Mina’s true crime novel The Long Drop (2017).
This event will have Stagetext live captions.
Includes a Durham Gin and tonic.
Purchase a copy of Come Join Our Disease, A Ghost in the Throat, A Little Devil in America, Luckenbooth, Mrs Death Misses Death and Sea State through our Bookshop affiliate links.
