Shortlist announced for the Gordon Burn Prize 2025
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The shortlist for the Gordon Burn Prize 2025 was announced today (23 January 2025).
This year the shortlist is dominated by female authors with all bar one of the six shortlisted books being written by women. The following six books are on the shortlist:
- Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (Daunt Originals)
- Ootlin by Jenni Fagan (Hutchinson Heinemann)
- Mrs Jekyll by Emma Glass (CHEERIO)
- Poor Artists by Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad (The White Pube) (Particular Books)
- Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands (Phoenix)
- The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trail of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate)
The Gordon Burn Prize recognises exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorisation. It celebrates literary outliers and daring and experimental work that often speaks to broader societal issues.
The shortlist covers fiction, non-fiction, and memoir. It comprises: a visceral novel centred around a fictional boxing tournament for teenage girls (Headshot): a deeply harrowing account of growing up in the care system (Ootlin): a gothic story on modern womanhood and grief (Mrs Jekyll): an eye-opening insight into the contemporary art world (Poor Artists): a coming-of-age novel set in a forgotten corner of Scotland (Only Here, Only Now): and an account of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of girls (The Lasting Harm).
The shortlist was selected by the Gordon Burn Prize 2025 judges:
- Terri White (chair), journalist, screenwriter, and author of the memoir Coming Undone.
- Carl Anka, journalist, author, and broadcaster who specialises in pop culture, video games, films, and football.
- Angela Hui, journalist, editor, and author of Takeaway: A Childhood from Behind the Counter.
- Sarah Phelps, writer for stage, radio, and TV. Her credits include EastEnders, Being Human and the BAFTA-award-winning The Sixth Commandment.
- David Whitehouse, novelist, non-fiction writer and writer for film and television, whose books include About A Son, shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize in 2022.
Terri White (chair) said:
“As we wrangled the 2025 shortlist through particularly passionate debate and discussion (and only a light ding-dong), I was reminded that just as no-one did it quite like Gordon Burn, no prize does it quite like the Gordon Burn Prize. Each shortlist summoned from the same spirit, but never speaking in the same voice, in the same way. This year – perhaps appropriately for our often Mad Max 3-esque reality – we were moved by the wild, the surreal, the vivid and the remorseless. These six books bump up against the limits not just of fiction and non-fiction – insisting that they shift – but the very limits of our world. They’re the stories that followed us home, demanding to be heard.”
Judge Angela Hui said:
“What a stellar year of incredible writing – it made my job as a judge incredibly difficult. This line-up of books pushes the boundaries of storytelling, fucks with form in new and inventive ways and stands as a testament to what strong, exciting writing can truly be.”
Claire Malcolm, CEO, New Writing North said:
“This year’s powerful shortlist centres women’s stories and women storytellers and their real, imagined and re-imagined stories. The titles on the shortlist explore the paradoxes of modern womanhood, tell us about growing up in care, how artmaking works within the capitalist system, how ill equipped the courts are to serve the needs of the young vulnerable women and girls who were Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and how it feels to be a young neuro-diverse teen with big life plans in 1990’s East Coast Scotland. The list abounds with interesting perspectives on trauma, power and art. A tremendous and diverse range of books and writers and all worth reading”.
Professor Jo Robinson, PVC for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Newcastle University, said:
“As ever, each of the shortlisted titles offer challenging and innovative approaches to important, vital stories. Newcastle University, and NCLA, are delighted to be working with New Writing North to support the Gordon Burn Prize in 2024-25 and beyond.”
The prize was founded in 2012 by New Writing North, Faber & Faber, and the Gordon Burn Trust. It is open to all writers of any nationality for work written in English and published in the UK the previous year. It is supported by Newcastle University and the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA).
The Gordon Burn Prize winner will be announced on 6 March 2025 at an event at Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne. The winning author will receive £10,000 and the chance to undertake a writing retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire.
The event will include readings from the shortlisted books plus performances. The event will be live-streamed.