Shortlist for the Wingate Prize 2024
The judges of the Wingate Literary Prize 2024 are delighted to announce their shortlist of six books, which collectively reflect the depths of Jewishness and Jewish life.
Among the two works of fiction and four non-fiction, the authors cover a diverse range of subjects, from chronic illness and photography, to the Cold War and cooking.
Now in its 47th year, the annual prize, worth £4,000 and run in association with JW3, is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.
The 2023/2024 short-listed books are:
Your Hearts, Your Scars by Adina Talve-Goodman (Bellevue Literary Press)
Adina Talve-Goodman challenges us to think differently about ill bodies, desire and death in the context of her relationship with Judaism. This tender and lyrical book will make you laugh while breaking your heart.
The Dissident by Paul Goldberg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Paul Goldberg takes us on a tour of the 1970s Moscow world of Jewish refuseniks, in an original, sharp mystery murder that crackles with flashes of dark humour and vivid observation. The wry authorial voice is irresistible.
Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm (Granta Books UK, Farrar, Straus and Giroux US)
A wonderfully minor-key memoir of an artistic life as the daughter of Jewish immigrants trying to find her feet in America. Written in a style so natural and vivid you forget it’s there, by a master of the form.
Kosher Soul by Michael Twitty (Amistad, Harper Collins)
A personal and compelling cross-genre exploration of the many layers of Black Jewishness. In a tone that feels refreshingly accessible, Kosher Soul is a book that will accompany you to the kitchen, into the dining room and then linger long after your final bite.
The Hero of this Book by Elizabeth McCracken (Jonathan Cape)
Elizabeth McCracken sees the world with a poet’s eye for detail, her observations wry and melancholy, always acute. A moving elegy of a writer’s relationship with her larger-than-life mother that simultaneously feels like a celebration of the possibilities of the novel.
One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank (Souvenir Press)
Beautifully evokes La Juderia in Rhodes before the Second World War, one of the many worlds destroyed by the Holocaust – told from the point of view of an extraordinary woman who survived it.
This year’s judging panel is comprised of chair, Benjamin Markovits, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Natasha Solomons and Rabbi Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz.
The judges commented:
‘The shortlist was agreed following a robust discussion in which we tussled and debated over very good tea and biscuits. After much consideration, our list reflects the books that had the most passionate support from each of us. We were all very aware of the remit of the prize – its aim to showcase books of Jewish interest to the general reader. Throughout our discussions, we realised how we all bring different perspectives to the table. There is no single way of being Jewish. Instead, Jewish identity flowers through a myriad of meanings, a range of which are highlighted in these shortlisted books.
The Wingate Prize winner will be decided in February, followed by an event at JW3 on 13 March 2024.
Press information: Anna Pallai anna@ampliterary.co.uk / 07971 496 227
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Judges’ Biographies
Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence is a novelist and Lecturer of Creative Writing. He is a former secondary school English teacher and has recently completed his PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. His debut novel The 392 was published with OWN IT! in 2019. His second novel Your Show was released with Faber in 2022 and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards. His third book, a young adult novel-in-verse called Wild East, is to be released with Penguin in May 2024.
Benjamin Markovits
Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He is the author of eleven novels including Either Side of Winter, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, and Christmas in Austin. He has published essays, poetry, stories and reviews on subjects ranging from the Romantics to American sports in The Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among others. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in London and teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Natasha Solomons
Natasha Solomons is the author of five internationally bestselling novels, including Mr Rosenblum’s List, The Novel in the Viola, which was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club, and The Gallery of Vanished Husbands. Natasha lives in Dorset with her son, daughter and her husband, the children’s author, David Solomons with whom she also writes screenplays. Her novels have been translated into 17 languages. When not writing in the studio, Natasha can usually be found in her garden.
Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz received her doctorate from University College London. She has just finished two years as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, investigating the history and development of Limmud Festival, one of the UK’s biggest celebrations of Jewish life and learning, and has lectured at several universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, and Vassar College, New York. She has taught at the London School of Jewish Studies since 2005 and is a Research Fellow there. In 2019 she founded the Pop-Up Beit Midrash, and in 2021 she received Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, New York. Her first book, Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women, was published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in 2021, and she is now preparing a book on Limmud.
The Wingate Literary Prize was established in 1977 by the late Harold Hyam Wingate. It is now run in association with JW3, the Jewish Community Centre. The winner receives £4,000.
The Harold Hyam Wingate Charitable Foundation is a private grant-giving institution, established over forty years ago.
JW3 is the first Jewish Community Centre and arts venue of its kind to exist in London. The brainchild of Dame Vivien Duffield and created by a core capital grant from the Clore Duffield Foundation, the centre opened on the Finchley Road, NW3 in October 2013.