Sarah Crossan today added the CILIP Carnegie award to a trophy cabinet that already holds The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize 2016 and the Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award for her verse novel One, about conjoined twins.
Chris Riddell became the first illustrator to win three CILIP Kate Greenaway medals, awarded for The Sleeper and the Spindle (written by Neil Gaiman). He is also the first reigning children’s laureate to win the medal.
Sioned Jacques, chair of the judges, said: “Sarah’s book, One, is poignant and thought-provoking, each chapter a poem that is a work of art in its own right, while collectively they create a highly emotive and engaging story. The judges found it deeply moving, beautifully observed, unusual but perfectly crafted – the sort of book that will stay with the reader long after the final page.
“We were blown away by Chris Riddell’s work in The Sleeper and the Spindle; he is surely at the height of his powers. His illustrations lift this re-told tale into high art, offering sumptuous pleasures on every page. The more one looks at his pictures the more one notices: subtlety and complexity, the clever use of such a limited palette, the daring use of solid black areas – no space is wasted.”
Riddell and Crossan were both given £5,000 and £500 worth of books to donate to their local library.
Crossan, who was shortlisted for the Carnegie medal in 2013 for The Weight of Water and 2015 for Apple and Rain, called for more industry support of poetry, saying children inherently “trust poetry” at a young age “and then we kill it for them by around Year 8 with testing leaving no space for joy or performance”.
Thomas Morris, editor of the Stinging Fly magazine, has won a Somerset Maugham Award for his short story collection We Don’t Know What We’re Doing (Faber). The other winners were Jessie Greengrass, Daisy Hay, Andrew McMillan and Jack Underwood. The awards are given to a writer under the age of 35 for a published work of any genre.
Each of the winning writers receives £2,500. This year’s judges were Philip Hensher, Joanna Kavenna and Adam O’Riordan. Hensher commented on Morris’ collection: “This masterly first book shows a literary virtue that will never falter: Interest in other people.”
Alex Christofi won the £10,000 Betty Trask Prize for Glass (Serpent’s Tail).
The prizes were presented by John Agard at the Society of Authors annual Authors’ Awards ceremony this evening at the Army & Navy Club in London.
