Myers wins Goldsmiths Prize for Cuddy

In the UK, Benjamin Myers has won the £10,000 (A$19,200) Goldsmiths Prize for Cuddy (Bloomsbury), a retelling of the story of the hermit St Cuthbert.

Cuddy incorporates poetry, prose, play, diary and historical accounts in retelling the life story of St Cuthbert, the unofficial patron saint of the north of England.

Chair of judges Tom Lee called Cuddy ‘a book of remarkable range, virtuosity and creative daring’. ‘A millennia-spanning epic told in a multitude of perfectly realised voices, this visionary story of St Cuthbert and the cathedral built in his honour echoes through the ages,’ Lee said. ‘The reader comes away with a renewed and breathless sense of what a novel of this ambition is capable of.’

Myers’ novel was chosen from a shortlist of six novels announced in October.

Established in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, the prize rewards fiction that ‘breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form’ and ‘embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best’.

Last year, Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams won the Goldsmiths Prize for their novel Diego Garcia (Fitzcarraldo). More information about the prize is available on the Goldsmiths Prize website.

Category: International news