The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by The Guardian newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspaper had sponsored from 1965. The Guardian First Book Award was discontinued in 2016, with the 2015 awards being the last.
The newspaper determined to change its book award after 1998, and during that year also hired Claire Armitstead as literary editor. At the inaugural First Book Award ceremony in 1999, she said that she was informed of the change, details to be arranged, by the head of the marketing department during her second week on the job. "By the time we left the room we had decided on two key things. We would make it a first book award, and we would involve reading groups in the judging process. This was going to be the people's prize." About the opening of the prize to nonfiction she had said in August, "readers do not segregate their reading into fiction or non-fiction, so neither should we." There was no restriction on genre; for example, both poetry and travel would be included in principle, and so would self-published autobiographies.
For the first rendition, 140 books were submitted, including a lot of nonfiction strongest "by far" in "a hybrid of travel-writing and reportage"; weak in science and biography. Experts led by Armitstead selected a longlist of 11 and Borders book stores in Glasgow, London, Brighton and Leeds hosted reading groups that considered one book a week, September to November, and selected a shortlist of six. A panel of eight judges including two Guardian editors chose the winner. The newspaper called it "the first time the ordinary reading public have been involved in the selection of a major literary prize." In the event, the 1999 reading groups selected a shortlist including six novels, and all four groups favoured the novel Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Their second favourite was one of the travelogue and reporting hybrids, by Philip Gourevitch of The New Yorker. The judges chose the latter, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families —"a horrifying but humane account of the Rwandan genocide, its causes and consequences", the newspaper called it in August.
The prize was worth £10,000 to the winner. Eligible titles were published in English, and in the UK within the calendar year.
Winners and shortlists
Source:
Blue ribbon () = winner
1999 Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, a hybrid of journalism and travelogue about the Rwandan genocideDaren King, Boxy an Star, a drugs fantasy written in a beautifully sustained argotDavid Mitchell, Ghostwritten, a patchwork of stories from all corners of the worldRaj Kamal Jha, The Blue Bedspread, a chamber tragedy by Calcutta-based authorGary Younge, No Place Like Home, account of his soul-searching journey from Stevenage to the deep SouthBella Bathurst, Lighthouse Stevensons, the story of Robert Louis Stevenson's lighthouse-building ancestors2000 Zadie Smith, White Teeth, novelMark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves, novelDave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, memoirNaomi Klein, No Logo, politicsAndrew X. Pham, Catfish and Mandala: a Vietnamese Odyssey, travelogue2001 Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, graphic novelMiranda Carter, Anthony Blunt: His Lives, biographyDavid Edmonds and John Eidinow, Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers, non-fictionGlen David Gold, Carter Beats The Devil, fictionRachel Seiffert, The Dark Room, fiction2002 Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is IlluminatedAlexandra Fuller, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs TonightHari Kunzru, The ImpressionistOliver Morton, Mapping MarsSandra Newman, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done2003 Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the MindMonica Ali, Brick LaneDBC Pierre, Vernon God LittlePaul Broks, Into the Silent LandAnna Funder, Stasiland2004 Armand Marie Leroi, Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human BodyMatthew Hollis, Ground WaterDavid Bezmozgis Natasha and Other StoriesSusanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellRory Stewart, The Places in Between2005 Alexander Masters, Stuart: A Life BackwardsReza Aslan, No god but GodRichard Benson, The FarmSuketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and FoundRattawut Lapcharoensap, Sightseeing2006 Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good PrayersLorraine Adams, HarborClare Allan, Poppy ShakespeareHisham Matar, In the Country of MenCarrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living2007 Dinaw Mengestu, Children of the RevolutionTahmima Anam, A Golden AgeRajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald CityRosemary Hill, God's ArchitectCatherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost2008 Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th CenturyMohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding MangoesOwen Matthews, Stalin's ChildrenRoss Raisin, God's Own CountrySteve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole2009 Petina Gappah, An Elegy for EasterlyEleanor Catton, The RehearsalSamantha Harvey, The WildernessReif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. SpivetMichael Peel, A Swamp Full of Dollars2010 Alexandra Harris, Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John PiperNadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba BoyNed Beauman, Boxer, BeetleMaile Chapman, Your Presence is Requested at SuvantoKathryn Schulz, In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error2011 Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of CancerStephen Kelman, Pigeon EnglishJuan Pablo Villalobos, Down The Rabbit HoleMirza Waheed, The CollaboratorAmy Waldman, The Submission2012 Kevin Powers, The Yellow BirdsKerry Hudson, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My MaChad Harbach, The Art of FieldingLindsey Hilsum, Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of RevolutionKatherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity2013 Donal Ryan, The Spinning HeartNoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New NamesShereen El Feki, Sex and the CitadelHannah Kent, Burial RitesLottie Moggach, Kiss Me First2014 Colin Barrett, Young Skins (story collection)Henry Marsh, Do No Harm (memoir)Fiona McFarlane, The Night Guest (novel)Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition (journalism)May-Lan Tan, Things to Make and Break (story collection)2015 Andrew McMillan, PhysicalDiane Cook, Man v NatureChigozie Obioma, The FishermenPeter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is PossibleMax Porter, Grief Is the Thing With FeathersSara Taylor, The Shore