Like other book events this year, the ceremony for the 2020 British Book Awards was moved online and today they released the winners of the literary award. And what an impressive list winners they are!
Candice Carty-Williams and Bernardine Evaristo take book of the year and author of the year prize, becoming the first black authors to win these top prizes. Carty-Williams was proud for her win but was “sad and confused” that she was the first black author to receive the prize.
Overall, this win makes me hopeful that although I’m the first, the industry are waking up to the fact that I shouldn’t and won’t be the last,” 1
Candice Carty-Williams
The announcement of these awards comes one week after a study found that Black and Asian audiences were being overlooked by UK publishers, a report and study that was done by the organization, Spread the Word. You can find the full report below.
Bernardine Evaristo, the joint winner of last year’s Booker Prize, not only won the award for fiction book of the year for her bestselling title Girl, Woman Other, she also won the the author of the year award, making her the first black author to win the title:
This is such an interesting moment in our cultural history because the Black Lives Matter movement has generated an unprecedented amount of self-interrogating in the publishing industry”2
Check the Bookseller website to get the full list of winners.
Congratulations to All the Amazing Winners!
Crime & Thriller Book of the Year
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Children’s Fiction Book of the Year
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Nonfiction Narrative of the Year
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Audiobook of the Year
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Shortlisted Books
