WPPOF is shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. In its inaugural year, this prize was awarded to one of my favourite novels of all time, so I have always regarded it as a mark of great distinction. For about a week after I found out about this, I’d just be making the bed or putting the coffee on, and it’d hit me all over again, and I’d say aloud to myself: “The Goldsmiths Prize! The GOLDsmiths Prize!” like a retired town crier trying to keep her skills up.
This was announced a while back (the third of three magnificent buses that arrived within 48 hours of one another) but I was too sick to post, so here it is on crip time, no less full of pride. Please enjoy the swanky announcement video that hopefully @goldsmithsprize won’t mind I stole (?!) and this clip of judge @mark__haddon describing the novel. Enormous thanks to Mark and judges @ajsackville , @mmegannolan , and @simonmjokotie , and congratulations to the other listed authors.
(And soz to everyone I owe a message to! And thank you for messaging me!)
What a week! Three buses came at once, and here’s the second. This is a huge honour, thank you, @center4fiction ! The other shortlisted books look so damn good—can’t wait to get stuck in—but I’m particularly honoured to be sharing this list with Rickey. Our books grew up together in the first workshop of our MFA, the only semester untouched by the isolation of the pandemic, when the twelve of us gathered around the longest, thinnest table at the Dobie House, helmed by Elizabeth McCracken, and couldn’t quite believe our luck. I loved Rickey’s work from the get go: wildly beautiful, wildly original, wildly ambitious.
Congrats to the whole shortlist. Can’t wait to meet you and your work!
Also, this means I’ll be in New York in December!!! North east friends, let’s get togetherrrrr xxxx
What actually happened last night?!!! People kept asking me if I had an “inkling,” but it was a genuine shock. A brilliant, joyous shock. Grateful to have been met with so much warmth and support: thank you to the judges, the folk at the BBC, my fellow shortlistees, everyone I chatted with at the reception last night, and everyone who reached out online. You’ve made this Yorkshire lass feel very lucky indeed.
I’m told I did, in fact, form coherent sentences during the post-announcement Q&A, so if you missed the live broadcast and would like to hear those alleged sentences, last night’s episode of Front Row is available to stream now. And If you haven’t heard the other shortlisted stories yet, you can also check them out on BBC Sounds or Spotify; each one is a moving, transporting, beautifully crafted piece of excellence. Ditto the stories shortlisted for the Young Writers’ Award. And congratulations to Rebecca Smith (of Sheffield!) for her win — come on South Yorkshire! Get in!!!!
(There are a couple other snibs of good news coming, so it’ll be a bit of a brag fest round here for a sec, but I swear I’ll be returning to my customary radio silence v soon!)
In this exclusive reading, 2026 @swanseauni Dylan Thomas Prize shortlisted author, Colwill Brown (@_colwill_ ), reads an extract from her bold and vibrant debut novel, 'We Pretty Pieces of Flesh' (@chattobooks , @vintagebooks ).
Will Colwill be crowned our 2026 winner?Join us LIVE! from 6pm (BST) on Thursday 14th May via our award ceremony livestream. See the link in our bio.
#SUDTP26
For International Children's Book Day, here's our @jonadin - multistarred author for children and adults alike - recommending 3 books to read if you're interested in varied treatments and portrayals of social class!
Dr Nadin teaches these books on Critical Issues in the Humanities: a brilliant and unique unit on our Creative Writing MA which gives emerging authors a real sense of the critical and social world into which their books will emerge.
If you'd like to learn more about Bristol's Creative Writing MA, follow the link in our bio!
Congratulations to Colwill Brown (@_colwill_ ) and all at @chattobooks , @vintagebooks ) for being shortlisted for 'We Pretty Pieces of Flesh.' #SUDTP26
WPPOF is longlisted for the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2026 PEN/Hemingway award! It was also honoured late last year on the longlist for the Gordon Burn Prize.
Grateful to all three lists for putting me on to some brilliant writers and books I hadn’t yet encountered, and for reminding me that the scope of this art form — not to mention the sheer scale of genius work being made all over the world all the time — is vast and thrilling and terrifying and sublime.
Big big thanks to all judges and administrators @dylanthomasprize , @penfaulkner , and @nwnnewwritingnorth , the teams at @chattobooks and @henryholtbooks , and everyone who has supported the book in any of the possible ways — thank you, in fact, to every last person who has devoted even a soupçon of their finite time and energy to reading / judging / considering / discussing the novel, even if you slagged it off. In a world of chaos, distraction, and damn fine literature, every minute is a gift xxx
Congratulations to Colwill Brown (@_colwill_ ) and all at @chattobooks , @vintagebooks ) for being longlisted for 'We Pretty Pieces of Flesh.' #SUDTP26
“You Cannot Thread a Moving Needle,” read by Sophie McShera, was broadcast on @bbcradio4 this weekend and is now available on @bbcsounds . (Or on Spotify for folks outside the UK.) So wild and brilliant to hear the story interpreted by another artist — huge thanks to Sophie and to producer Elizabeth Allard. Plus I had the great pleasure of talking with Kirsty Wark about the story last Wednesday on @bbcradio4 ’s Front Row, also available to stream now (all links in bio!).
In the absence of relevant visuals, please enjoy this image of me at Shaz’s age on a boozy night out round Donny (c. 2002). >>Swipe for an even more emo pic of me the year I decided to give writing a go and had impeccable taste in boots (c. 2010; she’s giving overnight success).
This lil baby of mine is shortlisted for the 20th Anniversary BBC National Short Story Award with @cambridgeuniversity . You can hear an abridged version on @bbcradio4 this Saturday at 11:30pm bst and on @bbcsounds , performed by Sophie McShera (yes, of Downton Abbey fame!) And I’ll be live on Front Row on Wed eve (7:15pm bst) to talk about it. This is Shaz’s tale, one of the most harrowing moments of her life, and I’m grateful she’ll be heard in this new way. I weighed every syllable of this story, trying to do her justice, say the unsayable. To call this an honour is an understatement. I am dead, dead proud.
Thank you to judges @kshamsie , @peopleearthskystars , @williamboydnovelist , Di Speirs and Ross Raisin for selecting the story, and congratulations to the other shortlisted authors @caoilinn_hughes , @andrewmiller4530 , Emily Abdeni-Holman, and Edward Hogan.
Forever thanks to the writer friends and mentors who helped usher this tale into being, especially @elizmccrack , and my brilliant agent/editor teams who’ve been championing Shaz and the gang for time.
#bbcnssa
Un libro sulla fame di vita. Colwill Brown al @salone del libro per presentare Noi bei pezzi di carne. E ci racconta perché l’ha ambientato a Doncaster, la stessa cittadina della serie Adolescence @_colwill_ #doncaster #adolescence #libri #salone #salto25 #eventi
LISTEN NOW: Host Rachel Barenbaum talks with Colwill Brown about her new book WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH. Now available live, on NHPR.org, and wherever you get your podcasts.
@nhpublicradio@penfaulkner@checkthisoutbooks@_colwill_
