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]

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 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

edit
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

edit
  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.