For the fourth year in a row, I’ve been involved in judging the McKitterick Prize (for a first novel, published or unpublished, by a writer over 40). However, after three years of helping to assess the unpublished manuscripts, this was my first time as a judge for the published submissions. It has been a great experience! Today the shortlists for all of the 2025 Society of Authors Awards have been announced, so I can share our finalists below.
My three fellow judges and I were all asked for 50-word blurbs about each book and about the shortlist as a whole. I’m honoured that my overall blurb was chosen to accompany the McKitterick rundown in the press release:
Each of these six novels has a fully realized style. So confident and inviting are they that it’s hard to believe they are debuts. With nuanced characters and authentic settings and dilemmas, they engage the mind and delight the emotions. I will be following these authors’ careers with keen interest.
Notably, Tom Newlands’s Only Here, Only Now is a finalist for two of the prizes this year, the other being the ACDI Literary Prize, which is awarded to “a disabled or chronically ill writer, for an outstanding novel containing a disabled or chronically ill character or characters.” (A worthy successor to the Barbellion Prize, which, unfortunately, only ran for three years, 2020–22.) His teenage protagonist grows up in working-class Scotland in the 1990s with undiagnosed ADHD.
The winner and runner-up will be announced in advance of the SoA Awards ceremony in London on 18 June. In previous years, I have stayed home and watched the livestream, but this year I’ll attend in person and hope to meet Southwark Cathedral’s resident cat, Hodge!
Have you read anything from the McKitterick shortlist, or one of the other prize lists?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
This is terrific—both that you’re judging the published works now (hooray!!) and that the Barbellion has a successor. Really, really pleased to hear that, and I’ll be following the ADCI with interest myself.
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It’ll be the third year for the ADCI: Nicola Griffith won in the inaugural year for Spear; last year’s winner was unfamiliar to me (Lorraine Wilson for Mother Sea).
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Loooove Nicola Griffith!!
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Well done you! My husband has just finished reading Coast Road and was very enthusiastic about it. My turn now!
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That one will be right up your street (ha ha)!
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Congratulations! I’m keen to read both Coast Road and Scaffolding.
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Both will be perfect for you, I think.
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How exciting, congratulations on the promotion! I have read the Susie Dent from that pile – I suppose it is her first novel, though she’s written a fair few nonfiction books. I will watch the results with interest.
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Thank you 🙂 It does feel like a promotion!
Yes, I’m aware that she’s written NF, as has Lauren Elkin. I’ve wondered whether that gives them an advantage over those who haven’t published at all before. But there’s nothing in the rules to say they’re not fully eligible. (Past winners have previously published short story collections, for instance.)
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Oh, goodness, nonfiction I can just about understand, short stories isn’t a very big jump, is it. How interesting.
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How exciting! I’ve read Scaffolding and The Coast Road. Enjoyed both but really loved Scaffolding – I thought it was exceptionally creative and very memorable. I have pushed it into the hands of many friends since.
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Scaffolding was my personal favourite. We’ve actually already chosen our collective winner and runner-up, but that won’t be revealed until 18 June.
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What a great shortlist! I enjoyed the Murrin and am keen to read the Elkin and the Dent. I went to Southwark cathedral earlier in the year but didn’t know about Hodge! I hope you meet her.
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I learned about the previous cathedral cat through a sweet children’s book: https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/visiting/doorkins-magnificat/the-story-of-doorkins-magnificat/
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Congratulations, Rebecca! I have Newlands on my Kindle and am also keen to read Elkin.
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Brilliant choices!
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Yay, so exciting! And a resident cat: amazing. You had already persuaded me of Scaffolding on Susan’s post, but this sure doesn’t hurt!
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I fear he will make himself scarce on the evening of the ceremony. But you never know!
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