We are delighted to announce that the Rathbones Folio Prize Book of the Year is

Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson (Non-Fiction)

Jefferson said: I feel very lucky to be a non-fiction writer. […] This is a Writers’ Prize. Nothing is more precious than knowing that other writers take their time, their energy and imagination to really appreciate what I – what me, what every writer in this room – have tried and will keep trying to do. Thank you, thank you and thank you!

Read the full acceptance speech here

Category Winner Fiction: Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser

Category Winner Poetry: Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

Press Release available here

The Rathbones Folio Prize 2023 Shortlists

Non-Fiction

The Passengers by Will Ashon

In Love by Amy Bloom

The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland

Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson – WINNER, NON-FICTION CATEGORY & BOOK OF THE YEAR

The Social Distance Between Us by Darren McGarvey

Fiction

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser – WINNER, FICTION CATEGORY

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

Emergency by Daisy Hildyard

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Poetry

Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley – WINNER, POETRY CATEGORY

Ephemeron by Fiona Benson

Cane, Corn & Gully by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa

England’s Green by Zaffar Kunial

Manorism by Yomi Ṣode