Caleb Azumah Nelson's OPEN WATER is longlisted for the 2021 Gordon Burn Prize

We are delighted that Caleb Azumah Nelson has been longlisted for the 2021 Gordon Burn Prize for his debut novel, OPEN WATER (Viking, 2021).  The longlist for the Gordon Burn Prize 2021 has been announced, as selected by chair of the judges, author Denise Mina; writer and poet Derek Owusu; novelist and short story writer Irenosen Okojie; and literary journalist and editor Sian Cain.

The prize is run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival. The winner will be announced at Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival, on Thursday 14 October 2021.

The Gordon Burn Prize, founded in 2012, remembers the late author of novels including Fullalove and Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel, and non-fiction including Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West and Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion.

Now in its ninth year, the prize seeks to celebrate those who follow in Gordon Burn’s footsteps by recognising literature that is forward-thinking and fearless in both ambition and execution. The works recognised often?make the reader think again, playing with style or genre, pushing boundaries or diverging from the mainstream literary culture.

Peter Pomerantsev won the Gordon Burn Prize in 2020 for This is Not Propaganda, his study on the war against reality. Previous winners have included David Keenan’s novel For the Good Times, set during the height of the Troubles in 1970s Belfast (2019); Census (2018), Jesse Ball’s fable inspired by his late brother; and Denise Mina’s true crime novel The Long Drop (2017).

A place on the longlist is reserved for the year’s boldest and most exciting fiction and non-fiction.

Find out more about the prize here.