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.
Winner 2019
Aida Edemariam has won the 2019 RSL Ondaatje Prize with The Wife’s Tale: A Personal History (4th Estate). The annual Prize of £10,000 is awarded for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.
I’ve always loved this prize, its generous inclusion of all forms of writing, its assertion that place is not incidental, mere background or local colour, but the thing itself. I’m beyond honoured and grateful to have been awarded it for The Wife’s Tale.
Aida Edemariam – winner, RSL Ondaatje Prize 2019
The Wife’s Tale is beautifully written, carefully researched and richly imagined, an exquisite blend of memoir, fiction, poetry and invocation. This is a book I shall constantly re-read as well as recommend to everyone i know who loves literature..
Michèle Roberts – Judge, RSL Ondaatje Prize 2019
For more information on the winner and other shortlisted authors, please see our press release.
This year’s judges are Sabrina Mahfouz, Michèle Robertsand Ian Thomson.
If you have any media enquiries, please contact Annette Brook: annette@rsliterature.org or call 020 7845 4680.
Shortlist 2019
Rania Abouzeid No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria (Oneworld)
Aida Edemariam The Wife’s Tale: A Personal History (4th Estate)
Aminatta Forna Happiness (Bloomsbury)
Sarah Moss Ghost Wall (Granta)
Guy Stagg The Crossway (Picador)
Adam Weymouth Kings of the Yukon: A River Journey (Particular Books)
Read the press release for further information.
Longlist 2019
In celebration of the fifteenth year of the RSL Ondaatje Prize we announced a longlist, for the first time:
| Rania Abouzeid | No Turning Back | (Oneworld) |
| Sam Byers | Perfidious Albion | (Faber & Faber) |
| Edward Carey | Little | (Aardvark Bureau) |
| Jonathan Coe | Middle England | (Viking) |
| Aida Edemariam | The Wife’s Tale | (4th Estate) |
| Aminatta Forna | Happiness | (Bloomsbury Circus) |
| Gaia Holmes | Where the road runs out | (Comma Poetry) |
| Christopher Hope | The Café de Move-on Blues | (Atlantic Books) |
| Emmanuel Iduma | A Stranger’s Pose | (Cassava Republic) |
| Alice Jolly | Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile | (Unbound)) |
| Patrick Langley | Arkady | (Fitzcarraldo Editions) |
| Jamal Mahjoub | A Line in the River | (Bloomsbury Publishing) |
| Sarah Moss | Ghost Wall | (Granta Books) |
| S.K. Perry | Let Me Be Like Water | (Melville House UK) |
| Donal Ryan | From a Low and Quiet Sea | (Doubleday) |
| Heidi Sopinka | The Dictionary of Animal Languages | (Scribe UK) |
| Guy Stagg | The Crossway | (Picador) |
| Malachy Tallack | The Valley at the Centre of the World | (Canongate) |
| Isabella Tree | Wilding | (Picador) |
| Adam Weymouth | Kings of the Yukon | (Particular Books) |
Please read the press release for more information.
Past Awards
| 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 |
