麻豆社

Front Row has revealed the shortlists for the 2019 Costa Book Awards, with established favourites and literary newcomers among those nominated.

The 48th edition of the awards sees 20 UK and Ireland-based authors vying for recognition in five categories – novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s book. With no previous winners of the overall prize nominated, there is guaranteed to to be a first-time winner of the £30,000 prize.

Some of the most high profile books nominated this year are in the first novel category, which features some breakthrough debuts. These include Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams' darkly comic novel which has already been serialised on Radio 4, and Diary of a Somebody from Brian Bilston, who has already found fame for poems published on Twitter. They compete with Sara Collins' Gothic story of a Jamaican slave accused of murder in Georgian London, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, and Joanna Glen's first novel, The Other Half of Augusta Hope.

Jonathan Coe is nominated for the first time with Middle England, the last in a trilogy of novels that began with The Rotters' Club in 2001. The other authors in his category, which has in the past provided 12 winners of the overall prize, are Sophie Hardach, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Joseph O’Connor.

The only previous category winner to find their name in the amongst the nominees is Paul Farley, who won the poetry prize in 2002. He now has the opportunity to match that with his latest collection, The Mizzy, but faces competition from Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan and John McCullough who all get the nod for their debut collections.

The winners of each £5,000 category award will be announced on Monday 6 January, with all five appearing on Front Row in advance of the announcement of the overall winner on Tuesday 28 January.

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES FOR THE 2019 COSTA BOOK AWARDS

Novel Award shortlist

• Middle England by Jonathan Coe (Viking)
• Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach (Head of Zeus)
• Starling Days by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Sceptre)
• Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)

First Novel Award shortlist

• Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston (Picador)
• Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (Trapeze)
• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Viking)
• The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen (The Borough Press)

Biography Award shortlist

• On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons by Laura Cumming (Chatto & Windus)
• The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather (WH Allen)
• In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum (Chatto & Windus)
• The Making of Poetry: Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels by Adam Nicolson (William Collins)

Poetry Award shortlist

• Surge by Jay Bernard (Chatto & Windus)
• Flèche by Mary Jean Chan (Faber & Faber)
• The Mizzy by Paul Farley (Picador)
• Reckless Paper Birds by John McCullough (Penned in the Margins)

Children’s Book Award shortlist

• Asha & the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan (Chicken House)
• Crossfire by Malorie Blackman (Penguin Books)
• In the Shadow of Heroes by Nicholas Bowling (Chicken House)
• Furious Thing by Jenny Downham (David Fickling Books)