Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.[1]
The awards, launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize.
In 1989, controversy erupted when the judges first awarded the Best Novel prize to Alexander Stuart's The War Zone, then withdrew the prize prior to the ceremony amid acrimony among the judges, ultimately awarding it to Lindsay Clarke's The Chymical Wedding.
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[edit] The process
Currently each year winners are chosen by five separate judging panels picking from different shortlists in five different categories:
- Best novel
- Best first novel
- Children's book
- Poetry
- Biography
Each category winner receives £5,000. One of the category winners is then selected as the Costa Book of the Year and given a further £25,000. This overall award is chosen by a judging panel that comprises five judges from the previous category round and four new ones.
The category winners do not have to be British or Irish but must have been resident in the UK or Ireland for at least six months in each of the previous three years.
[edit] Costa Book Award category winners
The overall winner for the year is shown in bold.
[edit] 2011
- First Novel Award — Christie Watson, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
- Novel Award — Andrew Miller, Pure
- Children's Book Award — Moira Young, Blood Red Road
- Poetry Award — Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees
- Biography Award — Matthew Hollis, Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas
[edit] 2010
- First Novel Award — Kishwar Desai, Witness the Night
- Novel Award — Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine
- Children's Book Award — Jason Wallace, Out of Shadows
- Poetry Award — Jo Shapcott, Of Mutability
- Biography Award — Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes
[edit] 2009
- First Novel Award — Raphael Selbourne, Beauty
- Novel Award — Colm Tóibin, Brooklyn
- Children's Book Award — Patrick Ness,The Ask and the Answer
- Poetry Award — Christopher Reid, A Scattering
- Biography Award — Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius
[edit] 2008
- First Novel Award — Sadie Jones, The Outcast
- Novel Award — Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture
- Children's Book Award — Michelle Magorian, Just Henry
- Poetry Award — Adam Foulds, The Broken Word
- Biography Award — Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End
[edit] 2007
- First Novel Award – Catherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost
- Novel Award — A.L. Kennedy, Day
- Children's Book Award — Ann Kelley, The Bower Bird
- Poetry Award — Jean Sprackland, Tilt
- Biography Award — Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin
[edit] 2006
- First Novel Award – Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
- Novel Award — William Boyd, Restless
- Children's Book Award — Linda Newbery, Set in Stone
- Poetry Award — John Haynes, Letter to Patience
- Biography Award — Brian Thompson, Keeping Mum
[edit] 2005
- First Novel Award - Tash Aw, The Harmony Silk Factory
- Novel Award - Ali Smith, The Accidental
- Children's Book Award - Kate Thompson, The New Policeman
- Poetry Award - Christopher Logue, Cold Calls
- Biography Award - Hilary Spurling, Matisse the Master
[edit] 2004
- First Novel Award - Susan Fletcher, Eve Green
- Novel Award - Andrea Levy, Small Island
- Children's Book Award - Geraldine McCaughrean, Not the End of the World
- Poetry Award - Michael Symmons Roberts, Corpus
- Biography Award - John Guy, My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots
[edit] 2003
- First Novel Award - DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
- Novel Award - Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
- Children's Book Award - David Almond, The Fire-Eaters
- Poetry Award - Don Paterson, Landing Light
- Biography Award - DJ Taylor, Orwell: The Life
[edit] 2002
- First Novel Award - Norman Lebrecht, The Song of Names
- Novel Award - Michael Frayn, Spies
- Children's Book Award - Hilary McKay, Saffy's Angel
- Poetry Award - Paul Farley, The Ice Age
- Biography Award - Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
[edit] 2001
- First Novel Award - Sid Smith, Something Like A House
- Novel Award - Patrick Neate, Twelve Bar Blues
- Children's Book Award - Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
- Poetry Award - Selima Hill, Bunny
- Biography Award - Diana Souhami, Selkirk's Island
[edit] 2000
- First Novel Award - Zadie Smith, White Teeth
- Novel Award - Matthew Kneale, English Passengers
- Children's Book Award - Jamila Gavin, Coram Boy
- Poetry Award - John Burnside, The Asylum Dance
- Biography Award - Lorna Sage, Bad Blood - A Memoir
[edit] See also
- List of British literary awards
- List of literary awards
- English literature
- British literature
- Literature
- List of years in literature
[edit] References
- ^ "Costa Book Awards" (pdf). http://www.costabookawards.com/pdfs/Past-Winners.pdf. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
[edit] External links
- Costa Book Awards official web site
- Injecting Caffeine Into the Whitbread (Now Costa) Book Awards at The Book Standard
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