The University of Edinburgh has announced the latest winners of the James Tait Black Prizes, the UK’s oldest literary awards.
Hosted by the university since 1919, the annual prizes celebrate outstanding fiction and biography writing.
This year’s fiction prize was awarded to Shady Lewis for On the Greenwich Line, translated by Katharine Halls and published by Peirene Press.
The biography prize went to Marlene L. Daut for The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe, published by Yale University Press.
On the Greenwich Line follows an Egyptian-born housing officer working with migrants and refugees in east London, exploring themes of displacement, identity and belonging.
The winning biography examines the life of Henry Christophe, the only king in Haiti’s history and a leading figure in the country’s fight for independence following slavery and colonial rule.
The awards are judged by literature scholars and also students, with winners recieving £10,000.
Organisers said that this year’s competition attracted more than 500 submissions, with five books shortlisted in each category.
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Professor Alex Thomson, head of the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This year’s James Tait Black Prize winners demonstrate the remarkable power of literature to illuminate lives, histories, and communities that are often overlooked.
"On the Greenwich Line by Shady Lewis, translated by Katharine Halls, is a deeply humane and sharply observed novel about migration and belonging in contemporary Britain, while The First and Last King of Haiti by Marlene L. Daut offers a powerful re-examination of Haiti’s revolutionary history through the life of Henry Christophe.
"Together, these works reflect the ambition, originality, and global perspective that the prizes have celebrated for more than a century."
