10 years of the Goldsmiths prize

The story so far

The Goldsmiths Prize was established in 2013 to recognise fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. It was founded by Tim Parnell, Senior Lecturer in English, who felt that no other literary prize rewarded the kind of novels he taught and read with most pleasure.

Tim explains: "Other prizes typically rewarded what they termed the ‘best’ fiction and the resulting shortlists seemed to confirm the sense that the novel in the British Isles was more conservative and conventional than its cousins elsewhere in the world.

"I wanted to know what had happened to the spirit of invention that characterised the novel at key moments in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Goldsmiths’ reputation for creative daring made it the ideal home for a prize championing mould-breaking fiction.”

With the New Statesman as a media partner, the prize quickly gained traction and Eimear McBride’s debut novel ‘A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing’ was announced as the first winner in 2013.

Collecting the first-ever award, Eimear McBride said: "To have a prize like this is a really wonderful thing to encourage writers to be adventurous, to continue to be adventurous, to encourage publishers to be adventurous, and readers to be adventurous.”

For the decade that followed, the prize has recognised experimental novels in many forms - from a book written in a single novel-length sentence (2016) to a noir novel written in verse (2018).

Professor Frances Corner, Warden of Goldsmiths, says: “The Goldsmiths Prize has spent ten years rewarding fiction that breaks the mould, connecting innovative novels to new audiences across the world and inspiring the next generation of writers.

“With the support of our media partner The New Statesman, the Prize has matured into a fixture of the UK’s literary calendar, amplifying the work of writers who dare to do things differently.”

A word from past winners

Since its inception, the prize has awarded £10,000 each year to a novel which embodies the spirit of invention that characterizes the genre at its best. Past winners have spoken of the importance of the Goldsmiths Prize and what winning has meant to them.

Designing the prize  

Each year, the prize is designed by students at Goldsmiths, who are given a brief to create a unique prize to be presented to the winner at the award ceremony.

Goldsmiths alumnus Dewi Uridge was selected to create the prize in 2017 and has gone on to become Associate Director and Senior Maker in the architecture industry.

Dewi said: “The brief was to integrate the Goldsmith’s Prize motif somehow. It was a multi-functional object to be used as a book-end or ornamental centrepiece. It was a two-part prize made from oak which had magnetic parts within to allow the trophy to free-stand securely.

"I think my involvement with the Goldsmiths Prize definitely helped tailored my future within the world of making objects and help bring ideas to life.”

The 2016 prize was designed by alumnus Panagiotis Tzortzopoulos, a designer and design consultant at Swarovski. Panagiotis said: “For the Goldsmiths Prize, we wanted to create a conceptual object that would reflect on the values of the award and the ceremony itself. Being a literary award, we wanted to include paper as a basic material.

“The idea for the iconic 'scribble' was to create a kind of illusion, resembling the diverse points of perspective one may have. One thing that Goldsmiths taught me is the act of 'multidisciplinary' and this is something I have very much enjoyed throughout my career until today.”

Looking to the future

Well-established and respected in the literary world, the Goldsmiths Prize shows no signs of slowing down. Despite uncertainty and challenges in the literary landscape, it continues to play an important role in championing a broad selection of innovative fiction.

Lucy Ellman

"Innovation is the novel at the top of its game, and appreciating innovation in the novel is a way of acknowledging previous writers who pushed literature in new directions, from Swift, Sterne, Rabelais and Austen, to Dickens, Flaubert, Joyce, Marquez, Bernhard and Jelinek. Without them, where would we be?

"Fiction has proven to be an inexhaustible method of thinking about people and the world – an ever more urgent task, as we drive ourselves and everything else in the world towards extinction. In a society going to the dogs, we need to support the best work of writers who regard fiction as an art form. At the very least, they form a barrier against the tsunami of commercial fiction washing our way.” ­

Ali Smith

"The novel is a revolutionary genre.  It progresses and thrives via its own formal process of change and experiment.  Because The Goldsmiths Prize understands how the novel works, it gets close to the heart of why readers and writers love it, why it's an important form to us all, and why it matters in the world.  In a time when the arts are under such immense pressure, financially and in terms of homogenisation the the market, we have to protect this prize.  It's the real thing."

Kevin Barry, 2015 winner

“I think it’s important to keep poking at the form with a sharp stick and not let it get too comfortable. We should ask hard questions of the novel always … Does it need all this furniture? Is it settling into familiar tropes? Is it using particular techniques simply because these techniques have worked out before? The Goldsmiths Prize rewards writers who ask such questions and as such is a very honourable endeavour.” 

Mike McCormack, 2016 winner

"It is absolutely crucial to both honour and recognise fiction that pushes out the boundaries of how we tell our stories. The prize is an ongoing reminder that there are more than one ways of speaking about the human condition."

M John Harrison

"Goldsmiths shortlists are models of the form – a broad spectrum of contenders, high levels of excitement, the search for authors who won't be limited in execution or subject matter. The prize only needs to remain itself. It should continue selecting novels on a broad front so that it offers the reader a kaleidoscopic view of what's happening."

Isabel Waidner

"I have come to think of the British novel as a – if not the – technology for the reproduction of white middle-class values, aesthetics and a certain type of acceptable nationalism. If we want the novel to live up to its radical potential, it simply has to change. The Goldsmiths Prize is one of the rare prizes that rewards novels that do this work – the work of expansion, redefinition and transformation."