Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction

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The Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction^[1] are annual awards, granted by Royal Society of Literature (RSL), to authors engaged in writing their first non-fiction book for a mainstream audience. The prize provides additional time or resources for writing or research, as well as raising the profile of the book when published.

Recipients must have a publishing contract and be citizens of either the UK or Ireland, or have been residents in one of these for at least the last three years.^[2]

The award was established in 2017, and secured in perpetuity through a bequest from author and RSL Fellow . The awards replace the earlier RSL Jerwood Award, which existed from 2004 to 2016 and which was funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.^[3]

Recipients[]

2020[]

• Doreen Cunningham for Soundings: A Journey with Whales, Virago, 2022 (£10k)
• Alice Sherwood for The Authenticity Playbook, Harper Collins, 2022 (£5k)
• Danny Lavelle for Down and Out: A Journey Through Homelessness, Wildfire, 2022 (£2,500)

The 2020 awards were judged by Damian Le Bas, Ramita Navai and .

2019[]

• Harry Davies for Operation Information, The Bodley Head, 2021 (£10k)
• Olive Heffernan for The High Seas: The Race to Save the Earth’s Last Wilderness, Profile Books, 2021 (£5k)
• Judges’ Special Commendation: Rebecca Fogg for Beautiful Trauma, Granta, 2022

The 2019 awards were judged by (Chair), Rachel Hewitt and Kenan Malik.

2018[]

• Laurence Blair for Lost Countries of South America: Travels in a Continent’s Past and Present, The Bodley Head, 2020 (£10k)
• Lily Le Brun for Looking to Sea: Britain Through the Eyes of its Artists, Hodder and Stoughton, 2020 (£5k)
• Judges’ Special Commendation: Paul Craddock for Dragon in a Suitcase: A Cultural History of the Art of Transplant, Fig Tree, 2020

The 2018 awards were judged by: Iain Sinclair (Chair), Laura Bates, Aida Edemariam and .

2017[]

• David Farrier for Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils, 4th Estate, 2019 (£10k)
• Lisa Woollett for Scavenging, John Murray, 2019 (£5k)
• Judges’ Special Commendation: Joanna Jolly for Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine, Virago, 2019

The 2017 awards were judged by Richard Holmes (Chair), Afua Hirsch and .

References[]