Elizabeth McCracken wins this year’s Wingate Literary Prize

The Hero of This Book cover[Missing Credit]

The author of eight books, McCracken has been chosen as one of Granta’s 20 best American writers under 40, has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and holds the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Hero of This Book beat five other shortlisted works: Your Hearts, Your Scars by Adina Talve-Goodman, The Dissident by Paul Goldberg, Still Pictures by Janet Malcolm, Kosher Soul by Michael Twitty, and One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank.

The prize-giving event featured the winner and Emily Kasriel, trustee of the Wingate Foundation, in conversation with the judges who are the chair Benjamin Markovits, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Natasha Solomons and Rabbi Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz.

The only UK literary award of its kind, the Wingate Literary Prize, now run in association with JW3, was established in 1977 by the late Harold Hyam Wingate. It attracts nominations from around the world and previous winners include Amos Oz, Zadie Smith, Oliver Sacks, David Grossman and Nicole Krauss.

The judges said: “In a timely and timeless fashion, McCracken’s powerful writing lets you be privy to secrets you just want to shout about. A thoroughly involving read that wrestles with memory, illness, place and identity; The Hero of This Book is moving in every sense.”