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Bristol author wins Writer of the Year Award
A Clifton-based author has won the prestigious Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award.
In a ceremony on Tuesday, Harriet Baker was announced as the winner amongst stiff competition from her fellow shortlisted writers Moses McKenzie, Scott Preston and Ralf Webb.
All four of the authors were described by Johanna Thomas-Corr, the chair of the Young Writer of the Year Award judges, as being: “unforgettable new voices in fiction and non-fiction who possess thrilling potential.”
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McKenzie and Webb also have ties to Bristol: Webb has recently moved to the city and McKenzie was raised in Easton.
The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award is awarded annually to a full-length published or self-published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a UK or Irish author aged between 18 and 35 years old.
Baker was shortlisted for the award alongside Moses McKenzie, Scott Preston and Ralf Webb
Four authors are shortlisted for the award each year. The winner takes home £10,000 while the three runners-up receive £1,000 each.
Harriet Baker was announced as the winner at a ceremony at London’s Whitechapel Gallery on Tuesday.
She won for her non-fiction debut, Rural Hours, which explores how three of Britain’s most famous twentieth-century authors – Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann – ‘moved to the countryside and were forever changed by it’.
The book, which took Baker six years to complete, first started as a PhD thesis. Baker holds an English degree from Oxford and a PhD from Queen Mary. She grew up in Edmondthorpe, a village in rural Leicestershire.
Baker’s award certificate was handed to her by literary critic Johanna Thomas-Corr and Sebastian Faulks, chair of the Charlotte Aitken Trust
The judges of this year’s prize were literary critic Johanna Thomas-Corr, chair of the Charlotte Aitken Trust Sebastian Faulks, journalist Tomiwa Owolade and broadcaster Justin Webb as well as authors Claire Adam, Andrew Miller and Victoria Adukwei Bulley.
Chair of judges, Johanna Thomas-Corr, said: “Harriet Baker’s Rural Hours has made me excited about literary criticism again.
“She has succeeded stunningly in her task of showing how transformative country life can be for a writer’s imagination.
“Every page of this quietly confident debut is inspiring, crafted as it is with deep intelligence and maturity of thought.”
All photos: Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer Award
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