Member Login Home Join the BA Bookshop Search Member Services Campaigns BA Events Industry Info Member Shop Costa Book Awards The Booksellers Association administer the Costa Book Awards, which is one of the most prestigious and popular literary prizes in the UK and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. The Costa Book Awards have five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book. The winner in each category receives £5,000. One of these five books is selected as the overall winner of the Book of the Year and receives a further £30,000, making a total prize fund of £55,000. It is the only prize which places children's books alongside adult books in this way. The Awards started life in 1971 as the Whitbread Literary Awards. From 1985 they were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006, when Costa Coffee took over ownership - the year that both Costa and the Book Awards celebrated their 35th anniversary. 2021 marks the 50th year of the Book Awards. Originally established in 1971, the rollcall of winners has included some of the best-loved, highest-profile and bestselling books of the past half century with shortlisted and winning books going on to be enjoyed by huge numbers of readers. COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2021 2021 Costa First Novel Award shortlist Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking) The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore (Granta) Fault Lines by Emily Itami (Phoenix) The Stranding by Kate Sawyer (Coronet) 2021 Costa Novel Award shortlist Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (Fig Tree) The High Horse by Jessie Greengrass (Swift Press) The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed (Viking) The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Viking) 2021 Costa Biography Award shortlist Consumed: A Sister’s Story by Arifa Akbar (Sceptre) The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War and Everest by Ed Caesar (Viking) Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston (Viking) Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (Allen Lane) 2021 Costa Poetry Award shortlist All the Names Given by Raymond Antrobus (Picador) A Blood Condition by Kayo Chingonyi (Chatto & Windus) Eat or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick (Carcanet Press) The Kids by Hannah Lowe (Bloodaxe Books) 2021 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist Maggie Blue and the Dark World by Anna Goodall (Guppy Books) The Crossing by Manjeet Mann (Penguin) The Midnight Guardians by Ross Montgomery (Walker Books) The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter (Scholastic UK) APPLYING FOR THE AWARDS Entry for the 2021 Costa Book Awards has now closed. If you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive information about submitting entries for 2022, please email costa.bookawards@booksellers.org.uk THE BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION LTD The Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom & Ireland Limited is a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. Registration No. 3849680. VAT No. GB 744 0368 40. Tel: 020 7421 4640 Email: mail@booksellers.org.uk JOBS SITE MAP MEMBER LOGIN CONTACT US PRIVACY NOTICE WEBSITE TERMS AND CONDITIONS NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS BATCH CABOODLE OUR CAMPAIGNS © 2021 THE BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION LTD.