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Judges

Terri White

Terri White is a journalist, author and screenwriter based in the northwest. Her book, Coming Undone: A Memoir was published by Canongate in 2020 and she is now developing it for television – as writer and Exec Producer – with Netflix and Bad Wolf, the production company behind His Dark Materials and I Hate Suzie. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times and a journalist specialising in class, society, VAWG and culture for titles including New Statesman, The Observer, British Vogue, The Guardian and The Big Issue. Prior to this, Terri worked in publishing for two decades, editing magazines in the UK and US including EMPIRE and Time Out New York. She was named Editor of the Year three times by the British Society of Magazine Editors; one of the 150 Female Leaders redefining the creative industries and a Folio Top Woman in US Media. She received the BSME’s lifetime achievement award, the Mark Boxer Award, in 2022 and was made a Fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), in recognition of her work in journalism. She is currently working on a short film, her second non-fiction book and her first novel.

As a passionate fan of Gordon Burn’s work, it’s utterly wild that I’ll have the honour of chairing the prize. Much like Burn’s work was without peer, the Gordon Burn Prize is unlike any other literary prize in the world, recognising work that is relentlessly radical, genre-busting, blazing and bold. I can’t wait to join the celebration of literature that treads the same pioneering path.

Past Judges

2022

DENISE MINA

JONATHAN LIEW

STUART MACONIE

HEATHER PHILLIPSON

CHITRA RAMASWAMY

2021

DENISE MINA

DEREK OWUSU

IRENOSEN OKOJIE

SIAN CAIN

2020

ANTHONY ANAXAGOROU

RACHEL HOWARD

SALI HUGHES

RICHARD T KELLY

2019

AA DHAND

MIRANDA SAWYER

RACHEL UNTHANK

GARY HUME

2018

ALEX CLARK

ANDREW WEATHERALL

GILLIAN WEARING

KEI MILLER

2017

COSEY FANNI TUTTI

PETINA GAPPAH

ALLAN JENKINS

IAN SANSOM

2016

JENN ASHWORTH

WILLIAM BOYD

RACHEL COOKE

HARLAND MILLER

2015

MAXINE PEAKE

RODDY DOYLE

DOUG JOHNSTONE

GAVIN TURK

SUZANNE MOORE

2014

JOHN BURNSIDE

JULIAN BARRATT

SARAH LUCAS

BEN MYERS

2013

DAVID PEACE

DEBORAH ORR

MARK LAWSON