Ipswich Institute
2019 Shortlist (with judges' comments):
Low Country, Brexit on the Essex Coast
by Tom Bolton
"A mapping of the area and an unrolling of Britain against the backdrop of Brexit … a gripping narrative." (Penned in the Margins 2018)
Self & I
by Matthew de Abaitua
"A beguiling memoir of the author's time as the writer Will Self's assistant living in a remote Suffolk cottage. A funny and thoughtful book."(Eye Books 2018)
All Among the Barley
by Melissa Harrison
"A beautifully written story of a young girl's tragic move into adulthood in an isolated Suffolk farming community in the years before the Second World War."
(Bloomsbury 2018)
Devoured
by Anna Mackmin
"An intriguing world of hippies, communes and childhood collide in this riotous story which manages dark themes with humour, tenderness and grace."
(Propolis 2018)
The Wound Register
by Esther Morgan
"A book of poems influenced by the Casualty Book of the Norfolk Regiment in the First World War – Morgan's East Anglian family history and present life as a mother is woven into the poems."(Bloodaxe Books 2016)
The Great Level
by Stella Tillyard
"This mesmerizing and complex novel shines its light on the engineering feats of land reclamation in the fens in the 17th century."
(Chatto & Windus 2018)
Judges: Julia Blackburn, Amanda Hodgkinson, Andrew Burton.