James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction · 2024 · Winner
My Heavenly Favourite
Marieke Lucas RijneveldFor its formally bold and psychologically unsparing exploration of religious repression and transgressive obsession.
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction
2024 Winner
2024 Shortlist & Longlist
Shortlist
Complete History
2020s
2010s
- 2019Ducks, Newburyport — Lucy Ellmann
- 2018Crudo — Olivia Laing
- 2017Attrib. and Other Stories — Eley Williams
- 2016The Lesser Bohemians — Eimear McBride
- 2015You Don't Have to Live Like This — Benjamin Markovits
- 2014In the Light of What We Know — Zia Haider Rahman
- 2013Harvest — Jim Crace
- 2012The Deadman's Pedal — Alan Warner
About the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction
The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction is Britain's oldest literary award, established in 1919 by Janet Coats in memory of her husband, publisher James Tait Black. Administered by the University of Edinburgh's Department of English Literature, it is the only major British book prize judged entirely by literature academics and postgraduate students rather than celebrity panels. The prize is awarded annually for the best work of fiction published in the preceding year, and uniquely it considers all novels published in Britain regardless of the author's nationality, making it genuinely international in scope. Past winners represent a remarkable canon of twentieth and twenty-first century literature, including E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924), Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter (1948), Muriel Spark's The Mandelbaum Gate (1965), Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981), Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000), and Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006). The prize carries no commercial sponsorship, preserving its scholarly independence. Each winner receives £10,000. Unlike many prizes, James Tait Black shortlists are published before the winner is announced, drawing attention to exceptional fiction that might otherwise be overlooked by larger prizes. The prize has a particular reputation for championing formally innovative, risk-taking fiction.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The prize is administered by the University of Edinburgh's Department of English Literature, where it is judged by academic staff and postgraduate students.
- It is Britain's oldest literary prize, founded in 1919, and the only major British book prize judged solely by literature academics and students rather than celebrity or trade judges.
- Any full-length work of fiction published in Britain during the preceding year is eligible, regardless of the author's nationality. The prize has a strong tradition of recognising formally innovative and challenging fiction.
- The winner receives £10,000, funded by the University of Edinburgh from the endowment established by Janet Coats.
- The winner is typically announced in late spring, following the publication of a shortlist earlier in the year.
- Yes, on several occasions the fiction prize has been shared between two winners, including in 1966, 1981, 1984, 1996, and occasionally in other years when judges found two works of equal distinction.
- Yes. Alongside the fiction prize, a biography prize has been awarded since 1919. A drama prize was added in 2012 but has been paused since the COVID-19 pandemic.