Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 67th year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.
Past winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair, Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Nicola Monaghan, Laura Beatty, Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Kemp, Kevin Barry, Ros Barber, Carys Bray, Benjamin Johncock, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Gail Honeyman and Guy Gunaratne. The Authors’ Club was established by Walter Besant in 1891, the Club has provided a social meeting place for writers for over 125 years.
The winner of the 2021 Best First Novel Award was Ingrid Persaud’s Love after Love.
The Authors' Club has announced the longlist for its Best First Novel Award 2022. The award is worth £2,500 to the winner.
Under the Blue by Oana Aristide
The Day I Fell Off My Island by Yvonne Bailey-Smith
The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney
The Cookbook of Common Prayer by Francesca Haig
A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
Fragile Monsters by Catherine Menon
Exile and the Mapmaker by Emma Musty
Moth by Melody Razak
The shortlist, selected by a panel of Authors' Club members, will be announced on 25 March. The winner, selected by Alex Wheatle, will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club on 25 May. Lucy Popescu, chair of the Authors' Club panel, said: "[The novelists] cover an array of subjects from bereavement and memory, betrayal and isolation, to resilience and hope, as well as celebrating intergenerational friendships and the importance of community. We visit England's past, present and future, and travel across the world from Northern Ireland to Malaysia, India to Jamaica, Tasmania to the Arctic Circle."
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