RSL Ondaatje Prize
RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlist
The annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.
We will open for the 2022 Prize in late summer. If you would like to be informed of when we are taking submissions, please fill out your details here to be added to the contact list.
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2021 – The Winner
We are excited to announce that Ruth Gilligan has won the 2021 RSL Ondaatje Prize with The Butchers (Atlantic Books). This year’s judges are Lola, Baroness Young of Hornsey (Chair), Helen Mort and Adam Rutherford.
‘I am just elated – and still totally shocked – to have won the 2021 RSL Ondaatje Prize. I am a sucker for books with a strong sense of place, so I have long been a huge fan of the Prize, but after a year of isolation and confinement, it feels more pertinent than ever to be celebrating the transportive power of reading. There were some absolute crackers on the shortlist, so I am truly honoured that the judges chose The Butchers. A million thanks; this really means an awful lot.’ Ruth Gilligan
‘Our winning title is about a moment in time, in a particular place. It’s been described in many different terms: Literary thriller, coming-of-age story, historical fiction, an account of superstition and the supernatural, but it doesn’t matter how it’s categorised – it’s a page-turning, roller coaster of a read. The humour works – we need relief from repressed emotional lives, and the slaughter of cows – and it lures us into recalling the recent past at a moment when ‘crisis’ was constantly on the lips of politicians and pundits alike – just like today.’ Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey, Chair of 2021 Judges
Watch our announcement video, by Pei-Hsin Cho, here:
Read the press release for more information.
If you have any media enquiries, please contact Kate Hassell, Bread and Butter PR: [email protected]
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2021 – The Shortlist
The other shortlisted books:
Louise Hare This Lovely City (HQ)
Adam Mars-Jones Box Hill (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Nina Mingya Powles Magnolia, 木蘭 (Nine Arches Press)
James Rebanks English Pastoral (Allen Lane)
Francesca Wade Square Haunting (Faber & Faber)
Watch our specially commissioned animations, by Pei-Hsin Cho, of the 2021 shortlist:
Please read the shortlist press release for further information.
You can purchase the winner, shortlist and longlist, and support us, as well as independent bookshops, through our bookshop.org shop.
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2021 – The Longlist
| James Boyce | Imperial Mud | (Icon Books) |
| Michael Crawley | Out of Thin Air | (Bloomsbury Sport) |
| Catherine Fletcher | The Beauty and the Terror | (Bodley Head) |
| Michelle Gallen | Big Girl, Small Town | (John Murray) |
| Ruth Gilligan | The Butchers | (Atlantic Books) |
| Louise Hare | This Lovely City | (HQ) |
| Adam Mars-Jones | Box Hill | (Fitzcarraldo Editions) |
| Caroline O’Donoghue | Scenes of a Graphic Nature | (Virago) |
| Nina Mingya Powles | Magnolia, 木蘭 | (Nine Arches Press) |
| James Rebanks | English Pastoral | (Allen Lane) |
| Gareth E. Rees | Unofficial Britain | (Elliott & Thompson) |
| Monique Roffey | The Mermaid of Black Conch | (Peepal Tree Press) |
| Francesca Wade | Square Haunting |
(Faber & Faber)
|
Please read the longlist press release for more information.
RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020
Roger Robinson won the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 with his collection A Portable Paradise (Peepal Tree Press). Please read the Winner Press Release for further information.
‘Winning the RSL Ondaatje Prize is great on many levels. Gaining wider recognition for the political issues that are raised in A Portable Paradise is 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
Watch our specially commissioned animated video, by Liang-Hsin Huang, announcing the 2020 RSL Ondaatje Prize winner:
Past winners
| 2020 | Roger Robinson | A Portable Paradise |
| 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 |
