The shortlists for the Costa Book Awards 2009 have been announced, aiming to recognise the best books published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
The Whitbread Literary Awards
The awards have been around, under various names, since 1971, starting life as the Whitbread Literary Awards before becoming the Whitbread Book Awards in 1985. Costa - the fastest growing coffee shop in the UK - has sponsored the prize since 2006, and the award continues to grow in popularity; this year, 592 entries were submitted, the second-highest figure ever received.
The awards certainly offer tempting prize money. There are five categories available - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - and the individual winner of each category wins £5000. One of these five winners will then be awarded the overall title of Book of the Year, and will receive a further £25000.
This Year's Shortlists for Costa Prize
The shortlists in full are as follows:
Costa First Novel Award
- The Finest Type of English Womanhood by Rachel Heath
- John the Revelator by Peter Murphy
- Beauty by Raphael Selbourne
- The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Costa Novel Award
- Family Album by Penelope Lively
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Costa Biography Award
- The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo
- The Music Room by William Fiennes
- Coda by Simon Gray
- Dancing to the Precipice by Caroline Moorehead
Costa Poetry Award
- Angels Over Elsinore by Clive James
- One Eye'd Leigh by Katharine Kilalea
- Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
- A Scattering by Christopher Reid
Costa Children's Award
- Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd
- Troubadour by Mary Hoffman
- The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
- Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera
Whatever your thoughts about the heavy sponsorship required to get such awards off the ground, it is certainly refreshing to see a book prize that recognises other forms of writing besides the novel. Since the Book of the Year 's inception in 1985, each of the five genres has yielded at least one winner of the big prize, with seven novels, three first novels, five biographies, five collections of poetry and one children's book being honoured.
This year's winners will be announced at a award ceremony in London on the 26th January 2010. The judging panel aims to represent all the genres of work nominated, and features actor Neil Pearson, broadcaster Fiona Phillips, authors Sandra Howard and Sophie Hannah, writers William Nicholson and Ben Macintyre, and biographer and historian, Robert Lacey.
Elizabeth Gregory - Liz graduated from Manchester University with a BA (Hons) in English Language & Literature, and also holds an MA in Literature from the ...
