All the latest news about the Rathbones Folio prize, previously known as the Folio prize until 2016.
January 2024
Zadie Smith and Paul Murray on shortlist for Writers’ prize
Other authors in contention for the award, previously known as the Rathbones Folio prize, include Naomi Klein and Observer art critic Laura Cumming
March 2023
Margo Jefferson wins 2023 Rathbones Folio prize
The writer and critic’s memoir, Constructing a Nervous System, was described as ‘astounding and rhapsodic’ by judges
January 2023
NoViolet Bulawayo and Margo Jefferson join ‘exciting’ Rathbones Folio prize shortlist
The newly formatted prize will, for the first time, name winners in fiction, nonfiction and poetry and the shortlist includes writers from across the world
July 2022
The Guardian view on book prizes: don’t forget the children
Rathbones Folio prize ‘refreshing format’ to expand to three categories
March 2022
Irish novelist Colm Tóibín wins Rathbones Folio prize for The Magician
Fictionalised biography of writer Thomas Mann beats Booker prize-winner Damon Galgut to £30,000 award
February 2022
Damon Galgut and Colm Tóibín join ‘rich and large’ Rathbones Folio prize shortlist
Galgut’s Booker winner and Tóibín’s fictionalised biography of Thomas Mann are two of eight titles selected by the judges
April 2021
Rathbones Folio prize paid £30,000 to scammers posing as the winner
‘Sophisticated cyber-criminals’ took Valeria Luiselli’s winnings, though a similar fraud attempt on the Baillie Gifford prize was foiled
February 2021
Monique Roffey leads strong showing for indies on Rathbones Folio shortlist
The Costa winner is up for award honouring the best work of literature regardless of genre, alongside many other titles from small presses
March 2020
Valeria Luiselli wins £30,000 Rathbones Folio prize for third novel
Mexican author awarded prize for her acclaimed novel Lost Children Archive in a digital-only ceremony streamed on Twitter
February 2020
Rathbones Folio prize: Zadie Smith makes female-dominated shortlist
Eight books in contention for £30,000 award that has never been won by a woman include Zadie Smith’s story collection Grand Union and poet Fiona Benson’s Vertigo & Ghost
May 2019
Raymond Antrobus becomes first poet to win Rathbones Folio prize
Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly review – a lyrical tour de force
March 2019
Anna Burns and Sally Rooney on Rathbones Folio prize longlist
Booker winner Milkman and Normal People, which took the Costa novel award, among 20 contenders for the £30,000 prize
May 2018
Ghosts of the Tsunami wins Rathbones Folio prize for deeply felt reportage of 2011 disaster
Richard Lloyd Parry takes £20,000 award for book that brings together six years spent collecting firsthand accounts of the catastrophe’s impact
March 2018
Top authors make mass call on Man Booker to drop American writers
Folio Academy members have overwhelmingly said prize should be closed to US novelists
February 2018
Books blog
Awards for women, writers of colour, small presses – why are there so many books prizes?
Claire Armitstead
There are so many literary prizes these days that they could be regarded as an industry in their own right – but they’re needed to change the status quo
May 2017
Folio prize goes to Hisham Matar's memoir The Return
Acclaimed account of the author’s journey home to Libya in search of his missing father’s story is the first nonfiction book to win the £20,000 prize
April 2017
Folio prize returns with nonfiction joining novels on the 2017 shortlist
The £20,000 award established as a more literary rival to the Booker has found a new sponsor and extended its reach to cover factual books
October 2016
Folio prize 2017 widens scope to judge fiction alongside non-fiction
Literary establishment’s alternative to the Man Booker will return as ‘the only major prize to reward what is genuinely the best book of the year’
