# Nero Book Awards

The Nero Book Awards are British literary awards, inaugurated in 2023. They are run by coffeehouse chain Caffè Nero in partnership with the Booksellers' Association, Brunel University London, and Right To Dream, "a football community dedicated to expanding people's understanding of excellence through football".
The awards are made in four categories: children's fiction, fiction, debut fiction, and non-fiction. A short list of four is drawn up for each category, and category winners are chosen, receiving £5,000. There is then a further selection process before one of the category winners is awarded the £30,000 "Golden Nero" award as "Book of the year". The awards are open to books published in the UK and Ireland, and at the time of entry the author must be alive and have been resident in the UK or Ireland for three years. The criteria for the awards are described as: "Our judges will be asked to choose the books they would most want to press into the hands of friends and family for their quality and readability."

## Timeline

For the 2023 awards, announced in 2024 for books published predominantly in 2023, the timeline was:
* 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023: Publication date for eligible books
* 19 June 2023 - 21 July 2023: Submission of entries
* 21 November 2023: Shortlists announced
* 30 January 2024: Category winners announced
* 14 March 2024: Golden Nero overall winner announced
A similar pattern of eligibility and submission dates has been announced for the 2024 awards.

## Shortlists and winners

The overall winner for each year is shown in boldface, and category winners are indicated by highlighted rows.
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result |
| 2023 | Paul Murray | The Bee Sting | Hamish Hamilton | Overall winner Fiction winner |
| 2023 | Eleanor Catton | Birnam Wood | Granta | Fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Megan Nolan | Ordinary Human Failings | Jonathan Cape | Fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Karen Powell | Fifteen Wild Decembers | Europa | Fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Michael Magee | Close to Home | Hamish Hamilton | Debut fiction winner |
| 2023 | Stephen Buoro | The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa | Bloomsbury | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Tom Crewe | The New Life | Chatto & Windus | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Chloe Michelle Howarth | Sunburn | Verve | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Beth Lincoln | The Swifts | Puffin | Children's fiction winner |
| 2023 | Lex Croucher | Gwen and Art Are Not in Love | Bloomsbury | Children's fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Kat Dunn | Bitterthorn | Andersen Press | Children's fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Candy Gourlay | Wild Song | David Fickling | Children's fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Fern Brady | Strong Female Character | Brazen | Non-fiction winner |
| 2023 | Freya Bromley | The Tidal Year | Coronet | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Natasha Carthew | Undercurrent | Coronet | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2023 | Victoria Smith | Hags | Fleet | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2024 |
| 2024 | Sophie Elmhirst | Maurice and Maralyn | Chatto & Windus | Overall winner Non-fiction winner |
| 2024 | Ellen Atlanta | Pixel Flesh | Headline | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Zeinab Badawi | An African History of Africa | W. H. Allen & Co. | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Orlando Whitfield | All That Glitters | Profile Books | Non-fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Adam S. Leslie | Lost in the Garden | Dead Ink | Fiction winner |
| 2024 | Suzannah Dunn | Levitation for Beginners | Abacus | Fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Jo Hamya | The Hypocrite | Weidenfeld & Nicholson | Fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Donal Ryan | Heart, Be at Peace | Doubleday | Fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Colin Barrett | Wild Houses | Jonathan Cape | Debut fiction winner |
| 2024 | Lara Haworth | Monumenta | Canongate Books | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Ferdia Lennon | Glorious Exploits | Fig Tree | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Orlaine McDonald | No Small Thing | Serpent's Tail | Debut fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Liz Hyder (illus. Tom de Freston) | The Twelve | Pushkin Press | Children's fiction winner |
| 2024 | Catherine Bruton | Bird Boy | Nosy Crow | Children's fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Scarlet Dunmore | How to Survive a Horror Movie | Little Tiger | Children's fiction shortlist |
| 2024 | Patrick Ness (illus. Tim Miller) | Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody | Walker Books | Children's fiction shortlist |