The winner of the twenty-sixth Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize, worth £7,500, has been awarded to Anna Burns for her novel Milkman, set in Belfast during the Troubles. Given the rubric of the Prize, and the strong commitment to Europe of both Jane and Christopher Ewart-Biggs, a separate Ewart-Biggs prize, also of £7,500, is awarded this year, to a work dealing with the implications of Brexit for Ireland, Britain and Europe. This has been won by Katy Hayward, for the Twitter account on which she provides her own political and sociological account of the Brexit process as it unfolds, as well as curating an up-to-date link to a range of work by other authorities. Speaking on behalf of his fellow-judges judges Paul Arthur, Catherine Heaney, Ian McBride, Susan McKay and Thomas Pakenham, the Chair Roy Foster said: “The announcement of the winners of the 2020 Prize has been delayed since the spring, as we hoped against hope to be able to have a face-to-face presentation in Dublin. These biennial events are important for us all, celebrating this remarkable institution and its founders, and bringing together friends of the Prize, from its foundation in the dark days of the 1970s until today. And the 2020 Prize – in fact, Prizes – represent some powerful work, reflecting a very high level of engagement with the themes which the Prize was founded to encourage.”
For full details of the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize, go to – ewartbiggsprize.org.uk.
