Books / News
Debut novelist from Easton wins Hawthornden Prize for Literature
An author from Easton has been awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature for his debut novel.
Moses McKenzie’s An Olive Grove in Ends recounts the experiences of a young man who struggles to escape a life of violent crime in Easton around Stapleton Road, known as Ends.
The young novelist will be presented with the £15,000 prize, one of Britain’s oldest literary awards, at a private ceremony in London later in September.
is needed now More than ever
The Hawthornden Prize is awarded annually to a British, Irish or British-based author for a work of “imaginative literature” – including poetry, novels, history, biography and creative non-fiction – published in the previous calendar year.
Previous winners include Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Ted Hughes, V S Naipaul, Bruce Chatwin, Alan Bennett, Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith and Colm Toibin.
Officially announced in the @LRB this week: @eastsidemoses is the winner of the 2023 Hawthornden Prize for Literature, Britain’s oldest literary award. Previous winners include Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith, Colm Tóibín, Evelyn Waugh…We are so proud of you, Moses. pic.twitter.com/w6Fsmm2jM8
— Wildfire Books (@Wildfirebks) August 4, 2023
An Olive Grove in Ends was praised by author, literary critic and book reviewer and one of the five judges of 2022’s prize Caroline Moore as a “dazzling debut, richly textured, gritty and profound”.
Moore said: “Moses McKenzie offers a thrillingly distinctive new voice, both street-wise and literary; lilting Jamaican patois mixed with Bristol slang is shot through with the language of the Bible and of the Koran.
“Set in the world of the disenfranchised and of drug-dealers, the novel is a moving tale of earthly love and spiritual redemption.”
McKenzie was also named best breakthrough writer at 2022’s inaugural Soho House Awards and won a Somerset Maugham Award in 2023.
His second novel, Fast by the Horns, will be published by Wildfire next spring.
Main photo: Gee Photography
Read next:
- Moses McKenzie wins breakthrough writer at Soho House Awards
- Acclaimed debut novel set in Easton
- A-Z Bristol Pub Crawl: The Sugar Loaf, Easton
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