RSL Ondaatje Prize

The annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.

RSL Ondaatje Prize 2017 – winner announced

The winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2017 is Francis Spufford with Golden Hill. For more information on the winner please see our press release.

Place has always been central to my work, so I’m delighted to win this prize of all prizes.  The 18th century New York of my book had to be conjured from maps and analogies and a few contemporary pictures, supported by walks round and round Lower Manhattan with my eyes fixed on the pavements rather than the skyscrapers.  It’s a joy to find that what I built in my head seems solid enough for others to walk in, in their imaginations.

Francis Spufford on winning the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2017

The other books shortlisted for the 2017 RSL Ondaatje Prize:

• Amy Liptrot The Outrun (Canongate)
• Rebecca Mackenzie In a Land of Paper Gods (Tinder Press)
• Kei Miller Augustown (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Barney Norris Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain (Black Swan)
• Rose Tremain The Gustav Sonata (Chatto & Windus)

The 2017 judges are Alexandra Harris, Henry Hitchings and Mimi Khalvati.

If you have any media enquiries, please contact Annette Brook: annette@rsliterature.org or call 020 7845 4680.

Past Awards