The Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize is a literary prize established by the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation in 2016. The main £10,000 Published Novel accolade is given to an English-language adventure fiction novel by an author of any nationality.
The prize also launched the following categories: Unpublished Manuscript, Author of Tomorrow, and New Voices.
Main prize recipients 2010s Year Author Work Result 2016 Corban Addison The Tears of Dark Water Winner Roger Hobbs Vanishing Games Shortlist Ben Kane Eagles at War Andy McDermott The Revelation Code Simon Scarrow Britannia Manda Scott Into the Fire 2017 Stef Penney Under a Pole Star Winner Frank Gardner Crisis Shortlist David Gilman The Last Horseman Graham Hurley Finisterre Sara Sheridan On Starlit Seas James Swallow Nomad 2018 Abir Mukherjee A Necessary Evil Winner Rory Clements Nucleus Shortlist Jane Harris Sugar Money Tyler Keevil No Good Brother Maggie Ritchie Looking for Evelyn James Wilde Pendragon 2019 Henry Porter Firefly Winner J.D. Fennell Sleeper: The Red Storm Shortlist Zeyn Joukhadar The Map of Salt and Stars Craig Russell The Devil Aspect Jock Serong Preservation Holly Watt To the Lions
2020s Year Author Work Result 2021 Rachel Joyce Miss Benson's Beetle Winner Ayesha Harruna Attah The Deep Blue Between Shortlist D. V. Bishop City of Vengeance Niall Edworthy Otto Eckhart's Ordeal Alex Shaw Total Blackout James Swallow Rogue 2022 Giles Kristian Where Blood Runs Cold Winner Chris Hadfield The Apollo Murders Shortlist John Marrs The Vacation T.L. Mogford The Plant Hunter Chibundu Onuzo Sankofa Lizzie Pook Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter 2023 Emma Styles No Country for Girls Winner Paddy Crewe My Name is Yip Shortlist Anthony McCarten Going Zero Priscilla Morris Black Butterflies Natasha Pulley The Half Life of Valerie K Jenny Tinghui Zhang Four Treasures of the Sky 2024 Francesca de Tores Saltblood Winner Louis de Bernières Light Over Liskeard Shortlist Chukwuebuka Ibeh Blessings C. E. McGill Our Hideous Progeny Derek B. Miller The Curse of Houdini Leo Vardiashvili Hard by a Great Forest 2025 Costanza Casati Babylonia Winner Nydia Hetherington Sycorax Shortlist Jack Jordan Redemption Diana McCaulay A House for Miss Pauline Samantha Sotto Yambao Water Moon Nussaibah Younis Fundamentally 2026 Anya Bergman The Tarot Reader of Versailles rowspan="6" Elodie Harper Boudicca's Daughter Adam Oyebanji Esperance Ruthvika Rao The Fertile Earth Clare Whitfield Poor Girls Harry Whitehead White Road
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