Kassabova’s ‘Border’ wins UK Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize

Wednesday, 31 October 2018 Books+Publishing

Scotland-based Bulgarian writer Kapka Kassabova has won the 2018 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for her book Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (Granta).

Chosen from a shortlist of five, Kassabova’s book explores how borders shape people’s lives, and is based on her travels around the border zone between between Turkey, Greece and her childhood home of Bulgaria, ‘intricately weaving the individual stories of the people she meets there into the wider history of the region’.

Chair of judges Ash Amin said on behalf of the jury: ‘Kapka Kassabova has written an extraordinary book, an important contribution to the urgent debate about global cultural understanding. Border has an original, compelling narrative which explores the notion of the border, not just as a frontier but as a psychological and cultural dynamic … Border invests the theme of cultural understanding with a magical quality, mixing observation, biography and lyricism.’

Now in its sixth year, the £25,000 (A$44,740) prize was established by the British Academy to celebrate works of nonfiction that contribute to ‘global cultural understanding and illuminate the interconnections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide’.

For more information about the prize, see the British Academy’s website.

Category: International news