RSL Ondaatje Prize

The RSL Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award of £10,000 given by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place. Established in 2004 and sponsored by Sir Christopher Ondaatje — writer, adventurer, and philanthropist — the prize celebrates writing that is deeply rooted in place, landscape, and geographical imagination. Its cross-genre eligibility is distinctive: novels, travel writing, poetry collections, and memoir all compete on equal terms, producing shortlists of remarkable variety. Eligible works must be by a citizen of, or someone resident in, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, or the Republic of Ireland. Past winners include Rory Stewart's The Places in Between (2005), Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes (2011), Francis Spufford's Golden Hill (2017), Roger Robinson's A Portable Paradise (2020), and Carys Davies's Clear (2025). The prize incorporates the legacy of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, previously awarded for regional fiction until 2002. The RSL Ondaatje Prize has a particular reputation for discovering and amplifying writers who might not otherwise receive recognition from genre-specific prizes, and its shortlists regularly bridge literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry.