The shortlists for the Betty Trask, McKitterick, Tom-Gallon and Somerset Maugham awards have been announced by The Society of Authors, with Nigerian writer Anietie Isong, amongst the 22 shortlisted names.
The four prizes will be awarded at The Authors’ Awards on Thursday July 19, in London, a unique night of riches with all the awards judged by authors for authors. The event has rewarded the early works of some of today’s most prominent literary figures such as Zadie Smith, Seamus Heaney, Helen Dunmore, Hari Kunzru, Carol Ann Duffy and Mark Haddon and the evening will see the UK’s biggest literary fund of more than £98,000 awarded to established and emerging writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Anietie Isong is shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize, for his debut novel, Radio Sunrise, described as a small volume about an utterly likeable Nigerian journalist.
Frances Fyfield, McKitterick judge says of Radio Sunrise: “A small volume, staying long in the imagination, with the huge backdrop of a young, utterly likeable Nigerian journalist trying to live a life and get ahead. Lovely, simple first-person narrative of youthful manhood, getting it wrong, getting it right, learning on the hoof. Makes the reader long to meet him, while engendering both hope and despair for the society he inhabits, all enlivened by humour. ”
Anietie Isong has worked as a journalist, speechwriter and public relations manager in the UK and in Nigeria. His writing has received some awards, including a Commonwealth Short Story Award and the Remember Oluwale Writing Prize. Anietie studied communications at the University of Ibadan and the University of Leicester. He completed a PhD in New Media and Writing at De Montfort University, Leicester.
The Society of Authors’ Awards is the UK’s biggest literary prize fund and has, since 1943, grown to celebrate poetry, fiction and non-fiction. A collection of eight prizes, uniquely run by authors for authors and shared each year between more than 20 writers, the Authors’ Awards reward, empower and bring recognition to writers at every stage of their careers.
