Longlist of nine announced for the 2023 DRF Writers Award

• Nobel Prize winner, Abdulrazak Gurnah, chairs a panel of three judges

• The winner receives £10,000 to complete first book 

• DRF Writers Award to be presented on 9th November in London 

The judges of the 2023 DRF Writers Award are the Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah (Chair), along with award-winning novelist, Claire Adam, and the renowned writer and journalist, Annalena McAfee. They will announce their shortlist of three contenders in November 2023 and the Award will be presented in London on 9th November. £10,000 will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates outstanding literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their work. 

The two runners-up will each receive £1,000.  

1. THE DYING EMBERS OF OUR SETTING SUN by Michelle Alipao Chikaonda (essays)

2. MAUDE GOES TINY by Leon Edler (children’s book)

3. WE KNOW WHAT THIS IS by Ese Erheriene (novel)

4. EVERY BIRD FLIES WITH ITS OWN WINGS by Rachael Hassam (novel)

5. QUALMS by Louis Klee (novel)

6. THE CAUL by Alicia McAuley (short stories)

7. THE DEAD DON'T BLEED by Neil Rollinson (novel)

8. THE RESERVOIRS ARE COLDER AND DEEPER THAN YOU THINK by John Steciuk (short stories)

9. EXIT INTERVIEW by Isa Tejera (novel)

The winner of the 2021 DRF Writers Award was Mathelinda Nabugodi for The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive, a work of non-fiction to be published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK and Knopf in the US in 2024.  

Biographical details of the longlisted writers are attached.