World Literary Awards

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James Tait Black Memorial Prizes じぇーむず・ていと・ぶらっく きねんしょう

Edition 105 (2023)

FictionBiographyDrama

Winners

3 people
Alexis Wright あれくしす・らいと Winner

Set in a fictional town in northern Australia, this epic novel braids together colonial history, the climate crisis, and Indigenous knowledge and myth on a vast scale. Its polyphonic, experimental style expands the story of communal crisis and survival.

A monumental novel that absorbs the pressure of land and history through mythic imagination.

662 pages
Indigenous literaturecolonialismclimate crisiscommunityexperimental fiction
Iman Mersal いまん・めるさる Winner

Tracing the life and death of the forgotten Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat in Cairo, Iman Mersal moves between research and recollection to fill a gap in literary history. The book blends biography, essay, and personal reflection into a quiet but persistent act of rediscovery.

It follows the traces of a forgotten writer and closes the gap between memory and history.

236 pages
memorywomen writersEgyptian literaturebiographyrediscovery
Ian Penman いあん・ぺんまん Winner

This book reframes the work and mythology of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder through fragments of criticism and recollection. It goes beyond film history, allowing the critic's own memory and sensibility to give the portrait of Fassbinder greater depth.

Fragmented criticism brings Fassbinder's figure and his era into focus.

200 pages
film criticismbiographyfragmentcultural historyfilm history