Guardian First Book Award

• Name — Guardian First Book Award • Description — Recognizing the best debut book of the year (fiction or non-fiction) • Presenter — The Guardian • Country — United Kingdom • Reward — £10,000 • Website — https: www.theguardian.com/books/guardianfirstbookaward

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 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.

Guardian First Book Award winners and finalists, 2010-2019 • Year — Author — Title — Result • 1999 — We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families — Winner • Lighthouse Stevensons — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • Boxy an Star — Finalist • Ghostwritten — Finalist • No Place Like Home — Finalist • 2000 — White Teeth — Winner • House of Leaves — Finalist • 1=A — Finalist • No Logo — Finalist • Catfish and Mandala: a Vietnamese Odyssey — Finalist • 2001 — Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth — Winner • Anthony Blunt: His Lives — Finalist • and John Eidinow — Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers — Finalist • Carter Beats the Devil — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 2002 — Everything Is Illuminated — Winner • Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • Mapping Mars — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 2003 — Mountains of the Mind — Winner • Brick Lane — Finalist • Into the Silent Land — Finalist • Stasiland — Finalist • Vernon God Little — Finalist • 2004 — Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of Human Body — Winner • Natasha and Other Stories — Finalist • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell — Finalist • Ground Water — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 2005 — Stuart: A Life Backwards — Winner • No god but God — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • Sightseeing — Finalist • Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found — Finalist • 2006 — 1=A — Winner • Harbor — Finalist • Poppy Shakespeare — Finalist • In the Country of Men — Finalist • Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living — Finalist • 2007 — Children of the Revolution — Winner • 1=A — Finalist • Imperial Life in the Emerald City — Finalist • God's Architect — Finalist • What Was Lost — Finalist • 2008 — 1=The — Winner • 1=A — Finalist • Stalin's Children — Finalist • God's Own Country — Finalist • 1=A — Finalist • 2009 — 1=An — Winner • 1=The — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 1=A — Finalist • 2010 — Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper — Winner • Boxer, Beetle — Finalist • Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto — Finalist • Black Mamba Boy — Finalist • In Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error — Finalist • 2011 — 1=The — Winner • Pigeon English — Finalist • Down The Rabbit Hole — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • 2012 — 1=The — Winner • Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity — Finalist • The — Finalist • Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution — Finalist • Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma — Finalist • 2013 — 1=The — Winner • We Need New Names — Finalist • Sex and the Citadel — Finalist • Burial Rites — Finalist • Kiss Me First — Finalist • 2014 — Young Skins — Winner • Do No Harm — Finalist • The Night Guest — Finalist • Age of Ambition — Finalist • Things to Make and Break — Finalist • 2015 — Physical — Winner • Man v Nature — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist • Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible — Finalist • Grief Is the Thing with Feathers — Finalist • 1=The — Finalist