Bloomsbury Regulatory News (BMY)

7 June 2018

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING Plc

("Bloomsbury")

Bloomsbury author wins major prize

- Bloomsbury's Kamila Shamsie wins the Women's Prize for Fiction -

- Bloomsbury authors make up 40% of The Golden Man Booker Prize shortlist -

As a mark of Bloomsbury's continued success, at an awards ceremony in central London last night, Wednesday 6th June - hosted by novelist and Women's Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse - the 2018 Chair of Judges, Sarah Sands presented the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction to Bloomsbury author Kamila Shamsie for her seventh novel, Home Fire. Bloomsbury's authors made up a third of the shortlist of six, with Jesmyn Ward with her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing also nominated.

Chair of Judges Sarah Sands said: 

"This was a dazzling shortlist, it had depth and richness and variety. We were forcibly struck by the quality of the prose. Each book had its champions … In the end we chose the book which we felt spoke for our times. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics. And it sustains mastery of its themes and its form. It is a remarkable book which we passionately recommend".

Bloomsbury's winners of this prize in the past (which was originally known as the Orange Prize and the Bailey's Prize) have included Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, both of which sold significant extra numbers as a result of winning this major prize. Large reprints of Home Fire have now been ordered.

Beyond last night's win, the publisher's authors continue to gain recognition in some of the industry's leading awards. The Golden Man Booker Prize, a special one-off award for Man Booker Prize's 50th anniversary celebrations, will pick the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the prize. Two of the five books nominated were published by Bloomsbury, drawing attention to the publisher's incredibly talented stable of authors that spans over thirty years.

All 51 previous winners were considered by a panel of five specially appointed judges, each assigned a decade to read the winning novels from before choosing a favourite from the period. Bloomsbury published the winning shortlisted works from both the 1990s - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje - and the 2010s, with the most recent winner Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. 

The shortlist has now been put to the public to decide the winner, which will be announced on 8 July 2018 at the Man Booker 50 Festival at Southbank Centre. 

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, said: 

"Firstly, may I congratulate Kamila Shamsie for this great recognition of her highly topical masterpiece Home Fire. I am grateful to the Women's Prize for the possibility of bringing thousands of new readers to Kamila Shamsie's work.

We are delighted too that two of our authors have been chosen for the Golden Man Booker Prize shortlist.

Our mission at Bloomsbury is to publish books of excellence and originality. Our literary fiction has always been at the centre of that mission. For Bloomsbury to have 40% of the "best of the Man Booker Prize" shortlist is very exciting, particularly as we didn't exist for the first 20 years of the 50 years of the Prize.

I would like most of all to thank Michael Ondaatje, George Saunders and all of our authors but also the editors of Bloomsbury including our two editors in chief, Liz Calder in the beginning and now Alexandra Pringle.

I hope that the largest possible number of readers will take part in the vote for the overall winner."

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