Saga Prize

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The Saga Prize was a literary award for new Black British novelists, which ran from 1995 to 1998.

History[]

The actress and writer Marsha Hunt established the Saga Prize in 1995 to recognise the literature emerging from indigenous black Britons' experiences.[1] The prize – of £3,000 and a book contract – was for unpublished first novels. To be eligible, entrants needed a black African ancestor and to have been born in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. The prize was sponsored by the travel firm Saga plc.[2] Judges included Andrea Levy and Margaret Busby.[3]

The "afrocentric" nature of the Saga Prize and its restrictive definition of blackness caused controversy.[2] The Commission for Racial Equality objected to its creation,[4] and the Society of Authors refused to support it.[5][6] The prize was successful, nevertheless, and ran for four years until 1998, winners including Diran Adebayo and Joanna Traynor.[7]

Winners[]

  • 1995: Diran Adebayo, Some Kind of Black
  • 1996: Joanna Traynor, Sister Josephine
  • 1997: , Bernard and the Cloth Monkey
  • 1998: , Canteen Culture

References[]

  1. ^ Marsha Hunt (8 August 1995). "Saga that led to a miracle". The Herald.
  2. ^ a b Mark Stein (2002). "Saga Prize". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
  3. ^ Margaret Busby, "Andrea Levy remembered", Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  4. ^ Deirdre Osborne (2009). "Introduction: Longevity and Critical Legitimacy: The 'So-called' Literary Tradition Versus the 'Actual' Cultural Network". Women: A Cultural Review. 20 (3: Contemporary Black British Women's Writing): 239.
  5. ^ Tracy J. Prince (2012). Culture Wars in British Literature: Multiculturalism and National Identity. McFarland. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7864-6294-0.
  6. ^ Mark Stein, Black British Literature: Novels of Transformation, Ohio State University Press, 2004, p. 15.
  7. ^ Cole Moreton (4 January 1998). "Books: Some kind of success | As the Saga Prize folds, Cole Moreton asks: has it really got easier for black writers?". The Independent.
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