RSL Ondaatje Shortlist

Cuddy has been shortlisted for the RSL's 2024 Ondaatje Prize, an annual award recognising an outstanding work of poetry or prose published in the last year that best evokes the spirit of a particular place. Now in its 20th year, it is one of the RSL’s 10 annual awards and prizes which strive to recognise, celebrate and reward the widest range of writers, celebrating literature in all of its forms.

The winner is bestowed with £10,000. The prize is named for its sponsor: businessman, philanthropist, adventurer and writer Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje. Eligible titles include any piece of poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, that evokes ‘the spirit of a place’, published in the last year and written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been a resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

Spanning fiction, non-fiction and poetry, the six books on the shortlist for the 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize are:

• Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong

• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

• A Flat Place by Noreen Masud

• Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

• No Man’s Land by David Nash

• Fassbinder, Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman

Francis Spufford, Jan Carson and Xiaolu Guo are the judges and selected six shortlisted works, and the ultimate winner, who will be announced on 14 May 2024 at Two Temple Place, London.