We're delighted to see that Raymond Antrobus, whose work we've championed since his 2018 PBS Choice, has won the 2019 Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award for his debut The Perseverance. Published by Penned in the Margins, The Perseverance has already won the Ted Hughes Prize, the Rathbones Folio Prize, and the Somerset Maugham Award. The announcement was made at a ceremony at The London Library last night.
Judge Kate Clanchy said: "The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award is special because it looks to the future: we wanted to find a writer who both speaks for now and who we were confident would continue to produce valuable, central work. Raymond Antrobus' The Perseverance draws together the worlds of performance and page poetry and speaks for his Jamaican British heritage and his d/Deaf communities in a way that is completely contemporary; but it was the humanity of the book, its tempered kindness, and its commitment not just to recognising difference but to the difficult act of forgiveness that made us confident we had found a winner for this extraordinary year."
Congratulations Raymond!
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