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 2021
The 2021 Prize is now closed for entries.
This year’s judges are Lola, Baroness Young of Hornsey (Chair), Helen Mort and Adam Rutherford.
The Winner 2020
We are delighted to announce the winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 is Roger Robinson with his collection A Portable Paradise. Animated video by Liang-Hsin Huang. Please read the Winner Press Release for further information. This year’s judges are Peter Frankopan (Chair), Pascale Petit and Evie Wyld.
‘Winning the RSL Ondaatje Prize is great on many levels. Gaining wider recognition for the political issues that are raised in A Portable Paradiseis one of the most important things for me, alongside more people reading about the struggles of black communities in Britain which hopefully creates some deeper resonating empathy.’ Roger Robinson
Roger Robinson appeared at the following events:
- Hay Festival Digital – in conversation with Peter Frankopan
- WORD Leicester will be showcasing Roger’s poem ‘On Nurses’ on their Facebook page
- BBC Radio 3’s The Verb will feature Roger in a programme about writers of the Caribbean diaspora.
Press enquiries should be sent to Annette Brook, Communications Manager, annette.brook@rsliterature.org
For questions about awards and prizes, please contact Martha Stenhouse, General Manager, martha.stenhouse@rsliterature.org.
Watch our specially commissioned animated video announcing the 2020 RSL Ondaatje Prize winner:
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 – Shortlist
- Jay Bernard Surge (Chatto & Windus)
- Tishani Doshi Small Days and Nights (Bloomsbury Circus)
- Robert Macfarlane Underland (Hamish Hamilton)
- Elif Shafak 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (Viking)
- Jumoke Verissimo A Small Silence (Cassava Republic)
Please read the Shortlist press release for further information.
Watch our specially commissioned animation announcing the 2020 RSL Ondaatje Prize shortlist:
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 – The Longlist
| Jane Clarke | When the Tree Falls | (Bloodaxe Books) |
| Laura Cumming | On Chapel Sands | (Chatto & Windus) |
| Lucy Ellmann | Ducks, Newburyport | (Galley Beggar Press) |
| Luan Goldie | Nightingale Point | (HQ Fiction) |
| Adam Higginbotham | Midnight in Chernobyl | (Bantam Press) |
| Kathleen Jamie | Surfacing | (Sort of Books) |
| Tim Mackintosh-Smith | Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes, and Empires |
(Yale University Press London) |
| Philip Marsden | The Summer Isles | (Granta Books) |
| Robert Minhinnick | Nia | (Seren) |
| Anita Mir | The Inside City | (Unbound Digital) |
| Max Porter | Lanny | (Faber & Faber) |
| Anna Sherman | The Bells of Old Tokyo: Travels in Japanese Time | (Picador) |
Please read the Longlist press release for more information.
Past winners
| 2019 | Aida Edemariam | The Wife’s Tale: A Personal History |
| 2018 | Pascale Petit | Mama Amazonica |
| 2017 | Francis Spufford | Golden Hill |
| 2016 | Peter Pomerantsev | Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia |
| 2015 | Justin Marozzi | Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood |
| 2014 | Alan Johnson | This Boy |
| 2013 | Philip Hensher | Scenes from Early Life |
| 2012 | Rahul Bhattacharya | The Sly Company of People Who Care |
| 2011 | Edmund de Waal | The Hare with Amber Eyes |
| 2010 | Ian Thomson | The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica |
| 2009 | Adam Nicolson | Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History |
| 2008 | Graham Robb | The Discovery of France |
| 2007 | Hisham Matar | In the Country of Men |
| 2006 | James Meek | The People’s Act of Love |
| 2005 | Rory Stewart | The Places In Between |
| 2004 | Louisa Waugh | Hearing Birds Fly |
