Rathbones Folio Prize
| The Rathbones Folio Prize | |
|---|---|
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| Awarded for | Literature published in the UK |
| Sponsored by | The Folio Society (2014-2015), Rathbone Investment Management Ltd (2016 - ) |
| Reward(s) | £20,000 |
| First awarded | 2014 |
| Last awarded | Active |
| Website | http://www.thefolioprize.com/ |
The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014-2015. In December 2016, the prize announced that its new sponsor is Rathbone Investment Management Ltd. The first Rathbones Folio Prize was awarded in May 2017.
The prize came into being after a group in Britain "took umbrage at the direction they saw the Booker Prize taking – they saw it leaning toward popular fiction rather than literary fiction." The prize was compared as a rival of the Man Booker Prize by the media. Margaret Atwood said the Folio Prize is "much needed in a world in which money is increasingly becoming the measure of all things."Mark Haddon said it was "not a mechanism for generating publicity by propelling a single book into the spotlight but a celebration of literary fiction as a whole."
The Folio Prize in its first two years was given to an English-language book of fiction published in the UK by an author from any country. The prize remuneration in the first two years was £40,000. It was initially called the "Literature Prize" as a placeholder until a sponsor could be found, then the Folio Prize, named for the Folio Society, a publisher of special editions of classic literature.
Beginning with the Rathbones sponsorship in 2017, the prize will be awarded to the best new work of literature published in the English language in a given year, regardless of form.Ahdaf Soueif will be the first chair of the judges. In addition to prize remuneration of £20,000, the Rathbones sponsorship will support a number of initiatives generated out of The Folio Academy, the group of writers who form the Prize's de facto governing body. Initiatives will include a new Academy mentorship scheme, in association with the charity First Story, which will mentor aspiring young writers, as well as a series of Rathbones Folio Sessions throughout the year in the form of literary workshops, lectures and debates.
The jury for the prize is called the Academy, a body of over 250 writers and critics that includes Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey, A.S. Byatt, Zadie Smith and J.M. Coetzee. Books are nominated by members of the Academy, three each, ranked. Points are given to each book depending on how many first, second or third rankings are earned. The top scoring books are made into a longlist of 60 books (80 in the first two years). The list of nominated titles is then judged by a panel of three to five judges drawn from the Academy who select a shortlist of eight and the final winner.
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