The 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize known as the “writers’ prize” – is the only award governed by an international academy of distinguished writers, ensuring a unique quality and consistency in the nomination and judging process. For 2023 it has launched a new structure with three specific category shortlists that speak to the global talent of the literary world across fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The prize foundation has refreshed its format to address the changing landscape of literary prizes, and by creating a more focussed structure, it offers readers and retailers a clearer and broader range of recommendations – and celebrates the fifteen most exceptional and exciting books across each format.

Executive Director Minna Fry and Co-founder and Chair of the Prize Andrew Kidd, said: ‘The principal aim of the Prize has always been to celebrate the best books published in a given year, regardless of form, and to get those books into the hands of as many readers as possible. Now, with the Prize’s new structure of three shortlists across three genres, our three brilliant judges have been able to shine a light on more titles than ever before, and we are thrilled by the breadth, inventiveness, urgency and energy of the fifteen books they’ve selected.’

The all-female shortlist for fiction, features stories about human connections taking place in Yorkshire, the South of France, and Maine, to non-fiction which explores contemporary Britain and social inequality, love and loss, and a true story from Auschwitz, and five extraordinary poetry collections from debut poets and established artists; the fifteen titles shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize in 2023 highlight the prize’s unique multi-genre reach across the global literary landscape.

Spanning three continents, this year’s Rathbones Folio Prize recognises internationally renowned talent from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. Each category winner, selected from a shortlist of five, will receive a £2,000 prize and, as a Rathbones Folio Prize Finalist, will be entered into the competition to be chosen as the overall Rathbones Folio Prize winner, receiving an additional £30,000.

Chair of the Judges, Ali Smith said: ‘It’s been a real pleasure, the process of choosing the cross genre shortlists. It’s a prize unlike any other in that the books in the running are specifically chosen from a long list nominated solely by writers. So we started with a list of great books, we’ve delighted in our reading and our meetings with each other over the past months, and we’re hoping our shortlists will excite other readers and writers as much as they’ve excited us.’

The winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize will be announced in a ceremony at the British Library on Monday 27th March. The shortlisted authors will take part in events across the country, with each category shortlist being celebrated in a dedicated event, and an evening of shortlist sessions at the British Library on 26th March. 

Fiction Shortlist

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo 

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

Emergency by Daisy Hildyard

Scary Monsters  by Michelle de Kretser

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Non-Fiction Shortlist

The Passengers by Will Ashon

In Love by Amy Bloom

The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland

Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson

The Social Distance Between Us by Darren McGarvey

Poetry Shortlist

Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

Ephemeron by Fiona Benson

Cane, Corn & Gully by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa

England’s Green by Zaffar Kunial

Manorism by Yomi Sode

Last year, Irish novelist Colm Tóibín was awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for his novel The Magician, a haunting, intimate portrait of the exiled German Nobel winner Thomas Mann. 

#RathbonesFolioPrize