The Desmond Elliott Prize was an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK.Richard Lea, "Anjali Joseph wins Desmond Elliott prize", The Guardian, 24 June 2011. The winning novel could be from any genre of fiction and had to exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner received . The prize was named in honour of the distinguished late publisher and literary agent, Desmond Elliott.
History and administration
The Desmond Elliott Prize was inaugurated at the bequest of Desmond Elliott, who died in August 2003. He stipulated that his literary estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award "to enrich the careers of new writers".Katie Allen, "Shukla, Connolly, Kelman on Desmond Elliott longlist", The Bookseller, 19 April 2011. The prize was therefore dedicated to supporting and celebrating aspiring authors and their fiction.
The Desmond Elliott Prize was launched in 2007 as a biennial award for a first novel published in the UK. The inaugural prize was won by Nikita Lalwani for her novel, Gifted, in June 2008. After the successful launch of the prize, the trustees decided to make it an annual award.Katie Allen, "Desmond Elliott Prize goes annual", The Bookseller, 23 June 2008. Edward Hogan won the prize in 2009 for his novel Blackmoor, Ali Shaw the 2010 prize for his novel The Girl with Glass FeetMaggie Hartford, "Desmond Elliott prize for novel goes to former Bodleian employee", The Oxford Times, 28 June 2010. and Anjali Joseph in 2011 for her novel Saraswati Park.Anupama Krishnakumar, "Discovering Saraswati Park – An Interview with Anjali Joseph", Spark Magazine, 5 August 2011.
The prize is administered by Emma Manderson and the trustees of The Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust, a UK charitable foundation. The Trust is chaired by Dallas Manderson, former Group Sales Director of the Orion Publishing Group. He is joined by Christine Berry, a partner in the charities group at Taylor Vinters, a Cambridge-based law firm, and Liz Thomson, an arts journalist and author. Both Dallas and Christine worked with Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books.
Judging
The panel of three judges, which changed each year, was selected by the trustees of the prize.
When selecting a winner, the judges looked for a novel with a compelling narrative, arresting character, and which was both vividly written and confidently realised.
Previous chairs of the prize include author Sam Llewellyn (2012), BBC broadcaster and presenter Edward Stourton (2011), and authors Elizabeth Buchan (2010), Candida Lycett Green (2009) and Penny Vincenzi (2008).
Rules and entry
The prize was awarded annually for the best first full-length work of fiction written in English published in book form in the UK, written by an author whose permanent place of residence was in the UK or Ireland. Entries were considered from all fiction genres.
The prize was selected from a longlist of 10 titles, followed by a shortlist of three outstanding books. For inclusion in this shortlist, a novel had to have the full support of at least one judge in whose opinion it is a valid contender for the Prize. Each shortlisted author received a hamper from Fortnum & Mason.
The winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize was announced at an awards ceremony held at Fortnum & Mason, Desmond Elliott's local grocer.
Transfer to National Centre for Writing
On 14 December 2019, the Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust was wound up, and its remaining funds were transferred to the National Centre for Writing. The Centre administered the Prize in the same way as previously, with awards made in 2020, 2021, and 2022. However, difficulties in finding sponsors for the Prize led to it being put on hold in 2022 until funding was available. In its place, the centre launched residencies for three debut fiction writers in 2023.
The Desmond Elliott residencies allowed the selected authors to spend a fully-funded week at the centre's residential cottage for visiting writers at Dragon Hall, Norwich. The selected authors, all of whom had published their first novel between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, were Santanu Bhattacharya, Carole Hailey, and Csilla Toldy. No further residencies have been announced since 2023. However, the Centre still promotes the Desmond Elliott Prize on its website as one of three Early Career Awards, alongside the UEA New Forms Award and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship.
Winners and shortlists Year Author Book PublisherRef. 2008 Gifted Penguin Books Child 44 Simon & Schuster Sunday at The Cross Bones Fourth Estate 2009 Blackmoor Simon & Schuster A Girl Made of Dust Fourth Estate The Rescue Man Jonathan Cape 2010 The Girl with Glass Feet Atlantic Books Before the Earthquake Tindal Street Press Talk of the Town Picador 2011 Saraswati Park Fourth Estate Boxer, Beetle Sceptre Pigeon English Bloomsbury 2012 The Land of Decoration Chatto & Windus The Last Hundred Days Seren The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Doubleday 2013 The Marlowe Papers Sceptre The Panopticon Heinemann The Universe Versus Alex Woods Hodder & Stoughton 2014 A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing Galley Beggar Press The Letter Bearer Catapult Press Ballistics Bloomsbury 2015 Our Endless Numbered Days Penguin Books Elizabeth Is Missing Harper Publishing A Song for Issy Bradley Ballantine Books 2016 The Glorious Heresies John Murray Mrs. Engels Scribe Publications The House at the Edge of the World Penguin Books 2017 Golden Hill Faber & FaberNatasha Onwuemezi, "Golden Hill wins £10k Desmond Elliott Prize", The Bookseller, 21 June 2017. My Name Is Leon Viking Press Harmless Like You Sceptre 2018 We That Are Young Galley Beggar Press How to Be Human Metropolitan Books Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Viking Press 2019 Golden Child Faber & Faber Hold Fourth Estate Devoured Propolis Press 2020 That Reminds Me Merky Books The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney Dialogue Books The Girl with the Louding Voice Sceptre 2021 The Manningtree Witches Granta little scratch Faber & Faber The Liar's Dictionary William Heinemann2022Maps of Our Spectacular BodiesPicadorIron AnnieBloomsburyKeeping the HouseAnd Other Stories
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