Litfest

Photo © Jane Bown

Congratulations to Lancasters’ own Paul Farley, Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University who has just been revealed as one of four joint winners of the Royal Society of Literature’s 2008 Jerwood Prize for non-fiction.

The prize is awarded jointly to both Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts for their forthcoming book Edgelands – Journeys into England’s Last Wilderness, set for publication in 2010 by Jonathan Cape. It is the first time the prize  has been awarded jointly.

Edgelands is the first non-fiction work by either of the two poets.

“The idea behind Edgelands was a response to the array of rural landscape books currently lining bookshop shelves. Michael and I wanted instead to write about the forgotten areas of our country, the overlooked places on the outskirts of towns that planners refer to as ‘edgelands’, full of business parks, rubbish tips, scrap yards and storage depots. We want to explore and celebrate them.” (Paul Farley).

The Royal Society of Literature and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation offer three annual awards, one of £10,000 and two of £5,000, to authors engaged on their first major commissioned works of non-fiction.

First prize went to Rachel Hewitt for her historical biography of the Ordnance Survey, Map of a Nation, to be published next year by Granta. The fourth award goes to poet Matthew Hollis, for his study Edward Thomas-The Final Years which will be published by Faber next year.