Autism Study 'Neurotribes' Wins Samuel Johnson Book Prize Autism Study 'Neurotribes' Wins Samuel Johnson Book Prize Monday, 02 Nov 2015 05:24 PM Close A A LONDON (AP) — A book that challenges readers to think differently about autism has won Britain's leading literary award for nonfiction. U.S. writer Steve Silberman's "Neurotribes" was awarded the 20,000 pound ($31,000) Samuel Johnson Prize at a ceremony in London Monday. It is the first science book to take the prize, founded in 1999 and usually dominated by history and biography. Silberman, a reporter for Wired magazine, explores the history of autism as a recognized condition, and the many mysteries that still surround it — including why its occurrence appears to have skyrocketed. He also looks at the modern "neurodiversity" movement that seeks to recognize, accept and celebrate people with cognitive differences.

Historian Anne Applebaum, who chaired the judging panel, said Silberman blended popular science, history and journalism in a book that ranges from the science of the brain to "the impact of the movie 'Rain Man' on popular culture." "It an unusual, genre-breaking kind of book, and also a book that's very deeply motivated by a set of ideals," Applebaum said. "It's an argument about autism and how we should see it as a different way of thinking." Silberman beat five other finalists, including Laurence Scott's look at humanity in the cyber-era, "The Four-Dimensional Human," and Samanth Subramanian's account of Sri Lanka's civil war, "This Divided Island." Also shortlisted were Jonathan Bate's poet biography "Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life"; Robert Macfarlane's literary nature tour "Landmarks"; and Emma Sky's war memoir "The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq." Named for the 18th-century essayist and lexicographer, the Samuel Johnson Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

Online: © Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Click Here to comment on this article Close Autism study ‘Neurotribes’ wins Samuel Johnson book prize | The Seattle Times Autism study ‘Neurotribes’ wins Samuel Johnson book prize Originally published November 2, 2015 at 2:28 pm Updated November 2, 2015 at 8:11 pm Share story JILL LAWLESS The Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A book that challenges readers to think differently about autism has won Britain’s leading literary award for nonfiction. U.S. writer Steve Silberman’s “Neurotribes” was awarded the 20,000 pound ($31,000) Samuel Johnson Prize at a ceremony in London Monday. It is the first science book to take the prize, founded in 1999 and usually dominated by history and biography. Silberman, a reporter for Wired magazine, explores the history of autism as a recognized condition, and the many mysteries that still surround it — including why its occurrence appears to have skyrocketed.

He also looks at the modern “neurodiversity” movement that seeks to recognize, accept and celebrate people with cognitive differences. Most Read Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. Historian Anne Applebaum, who chaired the judging panel, said Silberman blended popular science, history and journalism in a book that ranges from the science of the brain to “the impact of the movie ‘Rain Man’ on popular culture.” “It an unusual, genre-breaking kind of book, and also a book that’s very deeply motivated by a set of ideals,” Applebaum said.

“It’s an argument about autism and how we should see it as a different way of thinking.” Silberman beat five other finalists, including Laurence Scott’s look at humanity in the cyber-era, “The Four-Dimensional Human,” and Samanth Subramanian’s account of Sri Lanka’s civil war, “This Divided Island.” Also shortlisted were Jonathan Bate’s poet biography “Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life”; Robert Macfarlane’s literary nature tour “Landmarks”; and Emma Sky’s war memoir “The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq.” Named for the 18th-century essayist and lexicographer, the Samuel Johnson Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. ___ Jonathan Coe: Why I chose to write a biography of BS Johnson | Books | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close The final paragraph of my BS Johnson biography, Like A Fiery Elephant, begins: "These are the last words I intend to write about BS Johnson." I've spent most of the past few months eating them. Not that I'm complaining.

It's wonderful when a book reaches a wider audience and sends out more ripples than you ever imagined it would. When I signed up, back in 1995, for the task of writing a biography of an experimental novelist who had only reached a small (though devoted) audience in his lifetime, and had been pretty much forgotten ever since, all I had to motivate me was a modest advance and a burning admiration for his work. The response of most people whenever I discussed the project was to give me pitying looks. Even when the book was published, one of the most favourable reviews ended with the prediction that "it will probably be read by about two or three hundred people". The fact that Johnson's appeal is turning out to be far more enduring and far more widespread than expected raises some interesting questions. First of all, it is simply testament to his own gifts. He was certainly one of the best British prose stylists of the 1960s and on that subject I can do no better than quote the poet and novelist Adrian Mitchell's words from 1964: "Mr Johnson is a fine poet and he writes the prose of a fine poet.

Every word is weighed for its rhythmic effect as well as for its sense and sound." It's good to remember, incidentally, that Johnson began his working life as a poet, one whose preferred mode was the confessional, and who would only allow himself one subject: "nothing else but what happens to me". It may have been a common enough view in poetic circles at the time, but Johnson was perhaps the only person to carry this aesthetic over into the novel. Like many novelists (myself included), he started off by writing about thinly fictionalised versions of himself. In the early 1960s, as an impoverished poet forced to earn his living by supply teaching, he proceeded to write a novel, Albert Angelo, about an impoverished architect forced to earn his living by supply teaching. But he grew increasingly dissatisfied with this deception, and the book concludes with a howl of authorial self-disgust: "Oh, fuck all this LYING!" From then on, Johnson refused to "make things up" in his novels.

His disgruntled publisher wanted to market them as autobiography and facetiously asked him, "Aren't you rather young to be writing your memoirs?" But Johnson was adamant: "The two terms 'novel' and 'fiction' are not synonymous," he wrote in 1966. "The novel is a form in the same sense that the sonnet is a form; within that form, one may write truth or fiction. I choose to write truth in the form of a novel." It's hardly surprising that these words came back to me on Tuesday night, when the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction was awarded and in her opening speech Janice Hadlow, the controller of BBC4, declared that "fact is the new fiction". At the very least, I believed that BS Johnson would have felt vindicated. But it also helped me to realise why these 40-year-old novels of his, written on a modernist principle of formal innovation which many critics complained was out of date even at the time, suddenly feel so fresh and contemporary. Behind Hadlow's soundbite was, I think, an accurate recognition that fiction had better watch its back at the moment.

There appears to be a growing - one might even call it BS Johnsonian - lack of public faith in the ability of "stories" to tell us anything meaningful about our lives. This may be because novelists are not doing their job properly; more likely, it's because non-fiction writers are doing their job so well. One of the striking features of the judges' televised discussion in the run-up to the prize announcement was the extent to which they discussed all six of the shortlisted books in emotional terms: essays on cities, works of history and biography were repeatedly praised for moving the reader to laughter or tears - just the kind of response that fiction is traditionally expected to provoke. Johnson himself, for that matter, was a highly emotional writer. I first discovered him as a postgraduate student back in the mid-1980s, at a time when I was dutifully gritting my teeth and forcing my way through the novels of people such as Robbe-Grillet and Ann Quin. It was a shock - and a joy - to find that there existed a writer who shared their radical aesthetic but could also write page-turners, books which seemed unprecedentedly candid and self-revealing.

I would troop around the Warwick University campus evangelising for this strange writer who cut holes in the pages of his novels and insisted that his publishers package them as unbound pages in a box, until I remember a friend saying to me, one day: "I think you'll grow out of BS Johnson." She was right in the sense that nowadays I'm no longer so impressed by these quirky, attention-grabbing aspects of his work. But wrong in the sense that the urgency of his themes, and the passionate honesty with which he explored them, continues to inspire me. And not just me, I should add. I began writing the biography feeling like a lone voice in the wilderness; but one of my most gratifying discoveries was that many other writers - of my generation and younger - were already well aware of Johnson, and just as enamoured as I was. Will Self, John Lanchester, Scarlett Thomas, Richard Beard and Alain de Botton have all written or spoken of their admiration for him. Hari Kunzru gave Zadie Smith a first edition of The Unfortunates (his legendary book-in-a-box) as her wedding present.

How many other British novelists from the 1960s continue to excite their literary heirs as BS Johnson does? So perhaps these will - finally - be the last words I write about him. It's time for readers, now, to begin the adventure of rediscovering this most challenging, unusual and exasperating of writers and men. After all, in Johnson's own (far from modest) opinion of himself, he will only be receiving his due. On the day before he committed suicide, in November 1973, he remarked to his agent, Diana Tyler: "I shall be much more famous after I'm dead." I for one rejoice to think that this melancholy prophecy seems to be coming true at last.

An extract from Albert Angelo (1964) They had had to walk on the third day, but by then they had arrived: to Fishguard it had been easy, a lucky straight hitch, and then the boat to Cork with a night's loving and sleeping in a cabin that was like their first home, transitory as it was; then walking through the coldmorning city, and three lifts to Tralee by way of Macroom and Killarney; and finally, on that third day, the walking north after a bus to Dingle. They had had rain about three o'clock when they were walking along an unmetalled road parallel to the sea. There had been mountains like hooded Fathers rising to their south, and a sea like tarnished hammered pewter in Brandon Bay to their north ... Lead-underbellied clouds had come from the north-west, had cut off up to the haunches the purple mountains and had foreshortened the horizon. They had brought umbrellas, firstly as a gimmick for lifts, but then they had been glad to use them seriously.

They had decided that it would be as well to pitch their tent at the first place suitable, because of the set-in rain, rather than go on farther eastwards as they had at first intended. They had come down a path towards a lough and had turned inland along it: everywhere the land had been sodden and marshy, with peat digs here and there. They had walked about a mile alongside the lough without finding a large enough area of firm grass, drinking water from the bitter lough to ease unusual thirsts, before they had decided to turn back towards the sea. A stream had led out of the lough, down through striated rocks, and amongst these rocks they had found a small area of thick, close grass, green as spring, as unexpected as if it had been a hotel, and more welcome, where they had set their camp. When they were warm and comfortable they had realised that their love had come through its most severe trying yet: that miserable walk in the heavy rain with no knowledge of where they would that night sleep. ...

They had spent six days at this place, which had no name on their maps: but they had called it Balgy, for no reason other than that it had come to them, Balgy. They had built a kitchen area protected by rocks, and dug a pit in which to bury their detritus, and had defined an area where they could comfortably and civilisedly defecate, and had found a thicket where they could collect wood for a fire. Gneiss had been exposed in two great slabs at acute angles, the fault cut wider by the stream, the sides showing glacial striation. They had sketched the mountains, and had talked, had cooked and eaten enormous meals, and had never been as close. They had designed and drawn a house to be built for them over this stream, founded on the gneiss, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright but more beautiful than his Falling Water, they had thought, and they had called it Above the Fault .

On the ninth day they had left their Balgy, regretfully, and had walked eastwards to Tralee, twenty miles in that one day, on that warm day, and with heavy packs: and this journey and its physical exhaustion had drawn them the closest they were ever to be, for its length. Well before they had reached London they had both known that they had passed the pitch of their loving. · Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of BS Johnson is published by Picador, £9.99 on July 1. · An omnibus comprising three of BS Johnson's novels - Albert Angelo, Trawl and House Mother Normal - as well as The Unfortunates (the 'book in a box') and Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry is published by Picador, £14.99. Professor Richard Fortey (Doctor of Science) — University of Leicester Formerly Grade l Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum 1965-8. Kings College Cambridge, reading Natural Sciences. Colleg Prize 1968, Harkness Prize for Geology 1968. 1968. B.A. (1st Class, Natural Sciences) Cantab.

1968-1970. Research under Prof. H.B.Whittington on palaeontology and palaeoecology of Ordovician of Spitsbergen. 1971 PhD, Cambridge 1970-1977. Joined British Museum initially as a Research Fellow, then as Senior Scientific Officer. 1977-1978. Howley Visiting Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, with responsibility for teaching advanced stratigraphy and palaeontology. 1978-1988. Returned to British Museum as Principal Scientific Officer, then (1986) promoted to Senior Principal Scientific Officer, the highest research grade. 1978-84. Served Palaeontological Association as Editor, Publications secretary and Vice President. 1985. Organised meeting on Fossil and Tectonics at the Geological Society (with L.R.M.Cocks) 1986. Awarded Wollaston Fund of Geological Society, their senior fund. 1986. ScD Cambridge 1988. Appointed to editorial board of Paleobiology 1989.

Titular Member, Subcomission on Ordovician stratigraphy 1989. Member of the Geological Sciences Committee of the Natural Environment Research Council, concerned with awarding Research Grants, Studentships and Post-doctoral fellowships. 1991. Vice President, Geological Society of London. 1994-6. President, Palaeontological Association 1996 Organised international symposium on arthropod phylogeny (with Richard Thomas) at the Natural History Museum 1996 Lyell medal, Geological Society of London 1996 Lansdowne Visitor and Lecturer at the University of Victoria, Canada 1997 Fellow of the Royal Society 1998. Committee for the Public Understanding of Sciences (COPUS) and their Awards Committee 1999. Appointed to Board of Reviewing Editors, Science (N.Y.). 2000 -Visiting Professor of Paleobiology, Oxford University; Judge: Rhone Poulenc Book Prize. 2000. President of Geology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2001.

Appointed to Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) 2001 Frink medal, Zoological Society of London (their senior medal). 2001 Council Royal Society 2002. Collier Chair Professor in the Public Understanding of Science, Bristol University 2003. Lewis Thomas Prize, Rockefeller University 2006. President Geological Society of London. 2006. Zoological Medal Linnean Society of London 2006. Michael Faraday Prize, Royal Society, for Science Communication Honorary doctorates: Open University, St Andrew’s University, Birmingham University I have also served on the Councils of the Systematics Association, Royal Society, Palaeontographical Society (currently President) and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London. Editorial Boards: Terra Nova, Palaeontographica ltaliana, Historical Biology. Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Book Prizes: Natural World Book of the Year award, 1994, for "The Hidden Landscape"; runner-up The Sir Peter Kent Conservation Book Prize.

Shortlisted for the Rhone Poulenc science writing prize 1998 for "Life: An unauthorized biography" as was “Earth: an intimate history” for the Aventis Prize, 2005. 'Life' was also listed as one of the ten "Books of the Year" by the New York Times. "Trilobite! Eyewitness to evolution" was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2001 (The top non fiction prize). 2008 “Dry Store Room No 1” published 2011 “Survivors” published Autism exploration, Neurotribes, wins British nonfiction prize | Toronto Star Autism exploration, Neurotribes, wins British nonfiction prize Steve Silberman’s book explores autism as a different way of thinking. Steve Silberman's book Neurotribes, has won the Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction. (Amazon) By Jill LawlessThe Associated Press Mon., Nov. 2, 2015 LONDON—A book that challenges readers to think differently about autism has won Britain’s leading literary award for nonfiction. U.S.

writer Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes was awarded the 20,000-pound ($40,000) Samuel Johnson Prize at a ceremony in London on Monday. It is the first science book to take the prize, founded in 1999 and usually dominated by history and biography. Silberman, a reporter for Wired magazine, explores the history of autism as a recognized condition , and the many mysteries that still surround it — including why diagnoses have skyrocketed. He also looks at the modern “neurodiversity” movement that seeks to recognize, accept and celebrate people with cognitive differences. Historian Anne Applebaum, who chaired the judging panel, said Silberman blended popular science, history and journalism in a book that ranges from the science of the brain to “the impact of the movie Rain Man on popular culture. Article Continued Below “It an unusual, genre-breaking kind of book, and also a book that’s very deeply motivated by a set of ideals,” Applebaum said.

“It’s an argument about autism and how we should see it as a different way of thinking.” Silberman beat five other finalists, including Laurence Scott’s look at humanity in the cyber-era, The Four-Dimensional Human, and Samanth Subramanian’s account of Sri Lanka’s civil war, This Divided Island. Also shortlisted were Jonathan Bate’s poet biography Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life; Robert Macfarlane’s literary nature tour Landmarks; and Emma Sky’s war memoir The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. Named for the 18th-century essayist and lexicographer, the Samuel Johnson Prize recognizes English-language books from any country in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

Top 25 literary prizes - Telegraph Top 25 literary prizes We round up the most lucrative book awards in Britain and Ireland including the Man Booker Prize Prize winning: in 2012 Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker and Costa Book Award for her novel, Bring Up the Bodies, as well as £40,000 from the David Cohen prize for literature, taking her total winnings for last year to £125,000 Photo: Reuters/Luke Macgregor By Jon Stock and Kealey Rigden 7:00AM BST 15 Oct 2013 1. The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award - £85,000 (€100,000) The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award has been presented annually since 1996, and currently offers a top prize of €100,000 (approx. £85,000). It is the largest prize for a single novel published in English and nominations are made by public libraries around the world. Kevin Barry won the 2013 award for his novel City of Bohane. 2.

The Man Booker International Prize - £60,000 The international prize, open to fiction writers from across the world, is awarded every two years to a writer who has made a substantial contribution to world literature. Unlike the annual Man Booker Prize, this £60,000 award is based on a writer’s entire body of work, rather than a single novel. The American short story writer Lydia Davis was the winner of the 2013 prize. 3. The Man Booker Prize - £50,000 Related Articles Blank verse novel wins Desmond Elliot Prize 27 Jun 2013 Arguably the most prestigious UK literary prize, the Man Booker awards £50,000 each year for a full-length novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth, the Republic of Ireland or Zimbabwe. Next year, the rules of admission are changing. The prize will be open to any novel originally written in English and published in the UK, regardless of the nationality of the author.

Critics have complained that, by opening up the award to American writers, British novelists will lose out, but Jonathan Taylor, Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, says: "We are embracing the freedom of English in its versatility, in its vigour, in its vitality and in its glory wherever it may be." Eleanor Catton, one of the favourites for the 2013 Man Booker Prize (photo: Heathcliff O'Malley) 4. The Folio Prize - £40,000 Launched in 2013, the Folio Prize will be worth £40,000 to its first winner, who will be announced in March 2014. Initially called the Literature Prize (until a sponsor was found), it will be awarded each year for an outstanding work of prose fiction written anywhere in the world and published in English and in the UK during the previous year. The character and qualities of the prize are shaped by the Folio Prize Academy, an international group of writers and critics who are immersed in the world of books. The Academy will play a decisive role in selecting titles to be considered for the shortlist – each year the judges will be drawn from its number. 5.

David Cohen Prize for Literature - £40,000 Also worth £40,000, the David Cohen prize has been awarded every other year since its launch in 1993 in recognition of an entire career. The works must be written or translated into English. The 2013 prize went to Hilary Mantel for a lifetime of achievement in literature. 6. Costa Book Award – Book of the Year - £35,000 The Costa Book of the Year, worth £35,000, is selected from the winners of five sub-categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children’s book. The winner of each category is given £5,000, and the overall winner receives a futher £30,000. (The Short Story Award winner receives £3,000; the authors in second and third place receive £1,500 and £500 respectively.) Category shortlists will be announced on November 27, category winners will be announced on January 7 2014, and the 2013 Costa Book of the year winner on January 28.

Hilary Mantel won in 2012 for Bring Up the Bodies. 7. The Women’s Prize for Fiction - £30,000 Formerly known as the Orange Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction awards £30,000 annually for a novel written in English (by a woman of any nationality) that demonstrates "excellence, originality and accessibility". The 2013 winner was the American author AM Homes, for her novel May We Be Forgiven. Next year, the prize will be sponsored by Baileys, the cream liqueur. AM Homes, winner of this year's £30,000 Women's Prize for Fiction (Photo: Peter Lee Ash) 8. The Dylan Thomas Prize - £30,000 The Dylan Thomas Prize, launched in 2006, is aimed specifically at young authors. £30,000 is granted for the best published literary work written in English, by an author under 30. Maggie Shipstead won in 2012 for her book, Seating Arrangements.

The shortlist for 2013, announced last week, included seven writers from Australia, India, America, England and Wales, reflecting the "truly international scope of the prize". 9. Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award - £30,000 £30,000 is presented each year for a short story written English. Previous winners have included Junot Díaz, Kevin Barry, Anthony Doerr and CK Stead. 10. The Walter Scott Historical Prize - £25,000 The prize was launched in 2009 to commemorate the legacy of Sir Walter Scott. Its inaugural winner, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Hilary Mantel. Worth £25,000, the prize is one of the most prestigious accolades for writers of historical fiction. The Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng received the 2013 award for his second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists. 11. The Warwick Prize for Writing - £25,000 The biennual £25,000 Warwick Prize for Writing, founded in 2009, does not discriminate between works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Previous winners have included Peter Forbes in 2011 for his work Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, won in 2009. The 2013 prize was won by Alice Oswald, who became the first poet to win the prize, which is self-funded by the University of Warwick. Anyone who is a part of the Warwick community may nominate an author. 12. The Samuel Johnson Prize - £20,000 The Samuel Johnson Prize has been awarded annually since its launch in 1998 and is the richest exclusively non-fiction prize in the UK. The prize aims to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors writing in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. Wade Davis won in 2012 for his book, Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory and The Conquest of Everest. This year's winner will be announced on November 4, chosen from a shortlist of six books that include Margaret Thatcher by Charles Moore, and Return of a King, by William Dalrymple.

Charles Moore with Lady Thatcher: his authorised biography of the late prime minister is shortlisted for this year's £20,000 Samuel Johnson Prize (photo: Caroline Moore) 13. Children’s Laureate - £15,000 The role of Children’s Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. The title comes with a bursary of £15,000 and was first entrusted to illustrator Quentin Blake (1999 to 2001). Malorie Blackman , author of books such as Noughts and Crosses, holds the current (2013 to 2015) title. 14. The TS Eliot Prize - £15,000 Named the "prize most poets want to win" by Andrew Motion, the TS Eliot prize is one of the most coveted awards for any poet. £15,000 is given annually for the best new collection of poetry. Previous winners include Ted Hughes (1998), and Alice Oswald (2002), who also won the 2013 Warwick Prize.

The shortlist for this year's prize, which is now in its 20th anniversary year, will be announced on October 24. 15. BBC National Short Story Award - £15,000 This annual prize, managed in partnership with Booktrust, was established in 2006 in order to reward "homegrown" talent and is only open to writers resident in the UK. £15,000 is awarded for first prize, £3000 for the runner-up and £500 for the additional writers that reach the shortlist. Sarah Hall won this year's prize for her story Mrs Fox. Last year, the award was opened up to international writers to mark the London Olympics. 16. The RSL Ondaatje Prize - £10,000 Similar to the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Ondaatje Prize is awarded to a "distinguished" work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. Philip Hensher won this year for his novel Scenes from Early Life. 17. Guardian First Book Award - £10,000 The £10,000 prize is awarded for first-time writers. 18.

James Tait Black Prize - £10,000 Presented by Edinburgh University, the prize, founded in 1919, is one of the oldest literary awards in the UK. £10,000 is awarded annually for the best biography and the best work of fiction written in the previous year. In 2012, £10,000 was also awarded for Best Drama for a new play written in English, Scots or Gaelic. To celebrate 250 years of English study at Edinburgh Univeristy, the judges gave out an additional prize, declaring Angela Carter's novel Nights at the Circus as " the best of the best " of previous James Tait Black winners. (It won in 1984.) Angela Carter, whose novel, Nights at the Circus, was declared 'best of the best' of previous James Tait Black winners 19. Desmond Elliot Prize - £10,000 The Desmond Eliot Prize is presented to the author of a first novel written or translated in English and published in the UK. The winner of this year's prize was Ros Barber for her novel The Marlowe Papers, which was written entirely in verse. 20.

RSL Jerwood Award for Non fiction - £10,000 The Royal Society of Literature and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation offer three annual awards - one of £10,000 and two of £5000 - to writers undertaking their first major works of non-fiction. The 2012 winners were Ramita Navai for City of Lies (to be published in 2014) Edmund Gordon for Angela Carter - The Biography (2016), and Dr Gwen Adshead for A Short Book about Evil (2014). This year's winners will be announced in December. 21. Forward Prize for Poetry - £10,000 The Forward Prizes for Poetry, run by the Forward Arts Foundation, were established in 1991 with the aim of extending poetry's audience and raising its public profile. Three prizes are awarded each year: Best Collection (£10,000); The Felix Dennis Best First Collection of Poetry (£5,000); and, in memory of Michael Donaghy, a prize for the Best single Poem (£1,000).

This year's winners were Michael Symmons Roberts, Emily Berry and Nick MacKinnon. 22. The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize - £10,000 Worth £10,000, the prize rewards the best work of fiction by a living author, which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the UK. The prize money is split evenly between the writer and translator. First awarded in 1990, the prize ran until 1995 and was revived in 2000 with support from Arts Council England, who continue to fund the award. This year's winner was Gerbrand Bakker for The Detour, which was translated by David Colmer. 23. The Goldsmiths Prize - £10,000 Launched in January 2013 , the prize will award £10,000 to a work of fiction that shows extraordinary originality and which "embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best”. Jim Crace and David Peace are among this year's shortlisted authors. The winner will be announced on November 13. 24.

The Telegraph Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition - £5,000 Launched this year , the competition is open to anyone who has not had their work published before under a valid ISBN and who does not have an agent. Entrants are asked to submit the first 5,000 words of their crime novel, along with a detailed two-page synopsis of the rest of the book. The closing entry is midnight on November 30. In addition to a £5,000 book advance, the winner will have his or her book published by Harvill Secker and featured in the Telegraph. Click here for more information on how to enter and here for advice from leading crime writer Jo Nesbo. Jo Nesbo, who offers advice to hopefuls entering the Telegraph Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition 25. Waterstones Children’s Book Prize - £5,000 This is an annual award given to a work of children's literature and aims to "uncover hidden talent in children's writing". Since 2012, the prize has been divided into three: Picture Books, Fiction 5-12 and Teen.

Each category winner receives £2,000 and an overall winner gets a further £3,000 (taking the total prize money to £5,000). FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards organised by FT Live Film Director Mira Nair is a judge for the Film award. Mira Nair is the rare prolific filmmaker who fluidly moves between Hollywood and Independent Cinema. After several years of making documentary films, Mira Nair made a stunning entry onto the world stage with her debut feature film Salaam Bombay! (1988). Now hailed as a classic, the film has received more than 25 international awards including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988, the Caméra d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her second film, Mississippi Masala (1991) won three awards at Venice. Since, Nair made films such as The Perez Family (1993), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love(1996), My Own Country (1998), The Laughing Club of India (1999).

In 2001, Monsoon Wedding won the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, becoming one of the highest grossing foreign films of all time. Nair then directed the Golden Globe winningHysterical Blindness (2002). After making William Makepeace Thackeray’s epic Vanity Fair (2004), she directed a film based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s best-selling novel The Namesake (2006). This was followed by the Amelia Earhart biopic, Amelia (2009) starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. In 2012 Nair directed The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a thriller based on the best-selling novel by Mohsin Hamid. It opened the 2012 Venice Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was released worldwide in early 2013. She is currently directing the Disney production Queen of Katwe starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelwo. The film is based on the true story of the Ugandan chess prodigy, Phiona Mutesi.

Nair is an avid maker of short films, and recently directed a documentary film titled A Fork, a Spoon and a Knight, inspired by the Mandela quote, ‘Difficulties break some men but make others.’ She contributed to11.09.01 (2002) in which 11 renowned filmmakers reacted to the events of September 11. Other titles include How Can It Be? (2008), Migration (2008), New York, I Love You (2009), and her collaboration with Emir Kusturica and Guillermo Arriaga on a compilation feature Words With God. A long time activist, Nair set up an annual film-makers’ laboratory, Maisha in Kampala, Uganda. Since 2005, young directors in East Africa have been trained at this non-profit facility with the belief that “If we don’t tell our stories, no one else will”. Maisha is currently building a school with Architect Raul Pantaleo, winner of Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and his company Studio Tamassociati. In 1998, she used the profits from Salaam Bombay!

to create Salaam Balak Trust which works with street children in India. In 2012, Mira Nair was awarded the Padma Bhushan –India’s second highest civilian honor - by the President of India. See bio Sculptor El Anatsui is a judge for the Art award. An alumnus of the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, Professor El Anatsui is one of the most exciting international contemporary artists of our time. Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both sculptor and teacher – he was Professor of Sculpture and Departmental Head at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka – Professor El Anatsui has addressed a vast range of social, political and historical concerns, and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. His sculptures have been collected by major international museums, from the British Museum, London to the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi; Osaka Foundation of Culture, Osaka; Museum of Modern Art, New York and many other prestigious institutions besides.

His installations have provoked wide international attention in recent years, with institutions and audiences fascinated by these sumptuous, mesmerising works made from thousands of aluminium bottle tops. During the Venice Biennale, in 2007, he transformed the facade of the Palazzo Fortuny by draping it in a shimmering wall sculpture. In 2010, two major touring shows of his work opened on opposite sides of the world: El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada (organised by the Museum for African Art, New York) and A Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. As part of the 2012 Paris Triennale, he transformed the entire facade of Le Palais Galleria, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris with his striking work, Broken Bridge.

In 2013, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, exhibited the touring solo exhibition, Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, presented the artist with the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award for his work, TSIATSIA – searching for connection, 2013, which covered the entire facade of the RA building. The major survey exhibition Five Decades, which in 2015 premiered at The School (Jack Shainman), Kinderhook, New York, recently toured to Carriageworks (in association with Sydney Festival), Sydney, Australia. A major new work Kindred Viewpoints enveloped the facade of El Badi Palace during the 2016 Marrakech Biennale. In 2014, Professor El Anatsui was made an Honorary Royal Academician as well as elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015 he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia – All the World’s Futures. Professor El Anatsui has been represented by the October Gallery since 1993.

See bio Novelist, Political Scientist and Commentator Elif Shafak is a judge for the Fiction award. Elif Shafak is Turkey's most-read woman writer and an award-winning novelist. She writes in both English and Turkish, and has published 14 books, nine of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, Honour, The Architect’s Apprentice and her genre-crossing memoir Black Milk. Her books have been translated into more than 40 languages. Shafak blends Western and Eastern traditions of storytelling, bringing out the voices of women, minorities, subcultures, immigrants and global souls. Defying cliches and transcending boundaries her works draws on different cultures and cities, and reflects a strong interest in history, philosophy, culture, mysticism, intercultural dialogue and gender equality. Shafak is a public speaker and works with The London Speaker Bureau and Chartwell Speakers. She is regularly invited to give talks in major universities, corporations, international organizations, festivals and charities both in the UK and across the world. Shafak is also a political scientist and a commentator.

She holds a degree in International Relations, a master's degree in Gender and Women's Studies and a PhD in Political Science. She has taught at various universities in the UK, USA and Turkey. She has written for several international daily & weekly publications, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Die Zeit, La Repubblica,The Independent, Newsweek and Time. She is a TED Global speaker, a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). Honours and awards include: International Rising Talent, 2009; Ambassador of Culture Action Europe Campaign, 2010; Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Lettres; longlisted for the Orange Prize (2008); longlisted for MAN Asian Prize (2012); shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin awards; shortlisted for RSL Ondaatje Prize.

She sat on the judging panel for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2013); Sunday Times Short Story Award (two consecutive years 2014, 2015), 10th Women of the Future Awards (2015); FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards (2015, 2016); 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is based in London with her two children. She has over 1.7 million followers on twitter: @elif_safak Novelist, Filmmaker Xiaolu Guo is a judge for the Fiction award Novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo's artistic career spans both China and Britain. Her novels have been translated into more than 26 languages, including A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and I Am China (long listed for Bailey’s Women’ s Fiction Prize ). In 2013 she was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.

She also directed several award-winning films, include She, a Chinese (Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival), UFO In Her Eyes and Once Upon a Time Proletarian. Guo is also a honorary professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham in the UK. She currently lives in London and Berlin and was a guest of the DAAD Artists in Residence in Berlin in 2012 and a Writer in Residence of the Literaturhaus Zurich in 2015. See bio India Institute, King's College London Sunil Khilnani is a judge for the Fiction award. Sunil Khilnani is Avantha Professor and Director of the India Institute at King’s College, London. Prior to this, he was the Starr Foundation Professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advance International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C., and Director of South Asia Studies at SAIS. He was also Professor of Politics at Seikei University, Tokyo.

Formerly a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and a Leverhulme Fellow, he has also held Fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC; the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin; and the American Academy in Berlin. His publications include: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993), The Idea of India (7th edn. 2016); with Sudipta Kavirai, Civil Society: History and Possibilities (2000); with Nandan Nilekani, Pratap Mehta et.al., NonAlignment 2.0: a Foreign Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013); with Arun Thiruvengadam and Vikram Raghavan, and Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia (2013). His most recent book is Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part podcast and radio series broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015-2016 See bio Financial Times Lorien Kite is a judge for the Fiction award.

Lorien Kite is the books editor of the Financial Times. He has been at the newspaper since 2000, working most recently as deputy comment editor before taking on his current role in 2011. He was a judge for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. See bio Author Yiyun Li is a judge for the Fiction award. Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing and came to the United States in 1996. Her debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction. Her novel, The Vagrants, won the gold medal of California Book Award for fiction, and was shortlisted for Dublin IMPAC Award. Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, her second collection, was a finalist of Story Prize and shortlisted for Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Kinder Than Solitude, her latest novel, was published to critical acclaim. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and two stories from her debut collection were made into feature films.

Yiyun Li has received numerous awards, including Whiting Award, Lannan Foundation Residency fellow, 2010 MacArthur Foundation fellow, and 2014 Benjamin H. Danks Award from American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, among others. She was selected by Granta as one of the 21 Best Young American Novelists under 35, and was named by The New Yorker as one of the top 20 writers under 40. She is a contributing editor to the Brooklyn-based literary magazine, A Public Space , and has served on national and international jury panels including Man Booker International Prize and National Book Award. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband and their two sons, and teaches creative writing at University of California, Davis. Photograph credited to Roger Turesson. See bio Whitechapel Gallery Iwona Blazwick is a judge for the Art award. Iwona Blazwick has been Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London since 2001, leading its expansion in 2009.

From 1997 to 2001 Blazwick was at Tate Modern where she co-curated the inaugural collection displays and Turbine Hall Projects.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s she was Director of Exhibitions at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art; and thereafter worked as an independent curator in Europe and Japan.Iwona Blazwick has curated and commissioned numerous projects including solo presentations of Mark Dion, Rachel Harrison, Katharina Fritsch, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Cristina Iglesias, Ilya Kabakov, Mike Kelley, Jannis Kounellis, Sarah Lucas, Goshka Macuga, Paul McCarthy, Juan Munoz, Helio Oiticica, Giuseppe Penone, Annie Ratti, Fred Sandback, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West and Rachel Whiteread.She has also co-curated group shows of including Possible Worlds: Sculpture from Europe ICA, Serpentine Gallery 1990; Ha-Ha: British Artists in an 18th Century Garden, Killerton House, 1993;On Taking a Normal Situation and Retranslating it for Conditions Past and Present, Muhka, Antwerp 1993; Work in Progress, Louisiana Museum, Denmark, 1996; Between Cinema and a Hard Place, Tate

 Modern, 2000; Early One Morning, Whitechapel Gallery, 2004; and Spirit of Utopia: Art and Social Change, Whitechapel Gallery, 2012Blazwick has written extensively on contemporary artists from around the world.

She has served on many juries including the Kandinsky Prize; the Turner Prize; Venice Biennale Golden Lion award; the Vincent Prize and the Wolfgang Hahn Prize. She is Chair of the MaxMara Art Prize for Women, and a member of the jury for the Jarman Artists’ Film Award.She was on the Advisory Board of Documenta 13; and is on the Advisory Board of the Government Art Collection and the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth Commission. Iwona Blazwick is also Chair of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Strategy Group.She was awarded an OBE for services to art in 2007. See bio Art Jameel Antonia Carver is a judge for the Art award. Antonia Carver was Director of Art Dubai, 2010-2016, and in May 2016 shifted to a board position at the fair; in August 2016 she becomes the first director of Art Jameel, the arts foundation that supports artists and arts infrastructure throughout the wider Middle East, South Asia and beyond.

This new role is designed to oversee the expansion of Art Jameel, as the organisation builds new institutions locally, expands its partnerships internationally, and initiates exhibition, publishing and educational projects. At Art Dubai, Antonia oversaw the annual fair’s development into the leading international fair for the Middle East and South Asia, and the world’s most global art fair. The fair’s diverse programme includes three gallery exhibition halls; artists’ residencies and commissions, film and video; the Abraaj Group Art Prize; as well as a raft of educational initiatives, including the community school Campus Art Dubai. Based in the UAE since 2001, Antonia has written extensively, often on Middle Eastern art and film as a correspondent, and edited books and journals. In 2004, she joined Bidoun as an editor and later became the director of the Middle Eastern arts organisation’s projects division, co-organising education programs, artists’ projects, film and video series. Antonia played a role in establishing and curating the Dubai International Film Festival as a member of its programming committee (2004-2014), and has also acted as a Arab and Iranian film specialist for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Prior to moving to the UAE, Antonia was based in London, UK where she served a number of roles, including as an editor at Phaidon Press; in development and projects at the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva); and in publishing at G+B Arts International. See bio Financial Times Jan Dalley is a judge for the Art award. Jan Dalley is the arts editor of the Financial Times, appointed in November 2004. She joined the FT in 1999 as the literary editor. Previously, she was literary editor of the Independent on Sunday for eight years, and has written arts and literary journalism for fifteen years. Before becoming a journalist, she worked in publishing. Jan has judged literary prizes including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread, the Hawthornden prize and the Encore Prize. Her latest book is Black Hole: Money, Myth and Empire, a study of the Black Hole of Calcutta, published by Penguin in 2006. See bio RAW Material Company Koyo Kouoh is a judge for the Art award.

Koyo Kouoh is the founding artistic director of RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge and society in Dakar and the curator of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York. She served in the curatorial teams for documenta 12 (2007) and documenta 13 (2012). She most recently curated “Still (the) Barbarians” 37th EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial in Limerick, "Streamlines: Oceans, Global Trade and Migration” at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, "Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the work of six African women artists", WIELS, Lunds Konsthall, 49N6E FRAC Lorraine (2015–2016); "Precarious Imaging: Visibility surrounding African Queerness", RAW Material Company (2014); "Word!Word?Word!

Issa Samb and the undecipherable form", RAW Material Company/OCA/Sternberg Press (2013), the first monograph dedicated to the work of seminal Senegalese artist Issa Samb; "Condition Report on Building Art Institutions in Africa", a collection of essays resulting from the eponymous symposium held in Dakar in January 2012; "Chronicle of a Revolt: Photographs of a Season of Protest", RAW Material Company & Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2012) Besides a sustained theoretical, exhibition, and residency program at RAW Material Company, she maintains a critical curatorial, advisory and judging activity internationally. In collaboration with Rasha Salti, Kouoh is working on "Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy", a research, exhibition and publication project to be held in late 2017 accross different institutions. She lives and works in Dakar and occasionally in Basel. See bio Financial Times Nigel Andrews is a judge for the Film award. Nigel Andrews has been the FT’s film critic since 1973.

He has been a regular broadcaster for BBC radio and is author of the books True Myths: The Life and Times of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jaws. Mr Andrews has twice been named Critic of the Year in British Press awards. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. See bio Film Director Yuhang Ho is a judge for the Film award. Yuhang Ho is the winner of the inaugural FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Award in the category of Asia-Pacific Film for his short film Trespassed. Yuhang was born and raised in Petaling Jaya, just outside the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. He took a degree in engineering at Iowa State University in the US, but opted for a career in TV production when he returned to Malaysia. His debut feature MIN in 2003 was financed by television and shot on digital video, but was invited to many film festivals as a film and won the Special Jury Prize at the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France.

Mr Ho’s subsequent features and shorts have been invited to an ever-widening circle of festivals and have won several more prizes, including the NETPAC Award and the Tiger Award for Best Short at International Film Festival Rotterdam (for Sanctuary and As I Lay Dying respectively). Mr Ho’s third feature film, Rain Dogs, became the first Malaysian film to enter the Venice Film Festival in 2006. His widely anticipated fourth feature At the End of the Daybreak received the NETPAC Award at the Locarno Film Festival and garnered seven Best Actress Awards for lead actress Kara Hui. His latest film is Mrs K, a Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production. See bio Film Director Claudia Llosa is a judge for the Film award. Peruvian native Claudia Llosa studied communications sciences in the University of Lima Peru, and later scriptwriting at the U.TAI in Madrid. She began her career in advertising and television before starting her own production company. Her first feature film Madeinusa was released in 2006. Three years later, the WCF-funded film The Milk of Sorrow was a selection in the Berlinale Competition programme and went on to win the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Award.

The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2012, her short film Loxoro was a selection in the Berlinale Shorts programme and won the Teddy Awards. Her English-language film debut Aloft, starring Jennifer Connelly, Mélanie Laurent and Cillian Murphy, screened both Berlin and Sundace Competition in 2014. Director, producer, screenwriter | Peru Filmography (selection): Madeinusa (2006), The Milk of Sorrow (2009), Aloft (2014) See bio Filmmaker Pablo Trapero is a judge for the Film award. Pablo Trapero is one of the biggest creative forces in Latin American Cinema. He was born in San Justo, Argentina in 1971. In 1999 he directed his first feature, Mundo Grúa, which won the Critics Prize at Venice International Film Festival. In 2002, he opened his production company, Matanza Cine, which produces films for fellow filmmakers, as well as his own.

His second feature, El Bonaerense (2002) premiered at Cannes, whilst Familia Rodante (2004) was shown at Venice, and Nacido y Criado (2006) at Toronto Film Festival. In 2008, Trapero’s Leonera – which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes – revealed the talent of his wife Martina Gusmán, who produced and starred in the film. He returned to Cannes with Carancho (2010) and Elefante Blanco (2012), both selected for the festival’s Un Certain Regard section. Trapero’s films have received critical acclaim and awards at festivals across the world. He has also sat on the main Festival juries at Venice, San Sebastian and Locarno, among others. In 2014 he served as President of the Cannes Un Certain Regard competition. With his latest film, The Clan (2015), he won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice International Film Festival. In Argentina, the film received the biggest box office opening for a domestic film.

2.5m cinemagoers watched the film, which tells the true story of the Puccio family, who kidnapped and murdered multiple victims in the 1980s whilst Argentina was under military dictatorship. See bio Director of Emerging Markets Equities OppenheimerFunds Justin Leverenz is the Founder of the Emerging Voices Awards. Justin Leverenz has over 20 years of Emerging Markets equity experience, and manages the largest fund of its kind in the world. This fund (ODMAX) is one of the most successful and influential to invest in the developing world, and also one of the largest funds in any category to be run by a single decision maker. Being a fluent speaker of Mandarin and having lived in China for more than a decade, Mr Leverenz’s interest in Emerging Markets extends well beyond investing. This passion has inspired the launch of Emerging Markets Voices, a prestigious award that recognizes exceptional young talent in literature, film and visual arts throughout the developing world. For more information on Justin please click here >> See bio Associate Editor Financial Times Michael Skapinker is a Financial Times Associate Editor and writes a weekly column on business and society.

He joined the FT in 1986 and has held many positions, including FT Weekend editor, management editor and Special Reports Editor. He was born in South Africa and educated at Witwatersrand and Cambridge universities. He was awarded the Work Foundation Members' Award for his contribution to the understanding of working life in 2003, was named WorkWorld Media Awards columnist of the year in 2008, Editorial Intelligence Awards top business commentator in 2012 and top business ethics commentator in 2015. See bio

Question: Founded in 1999 by BBC4 TV, for what is the Samuel Johnson Prize awarded?
Answer: NON-FICTION