EMMA STYLES WINS £10,000 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE
WITH ‘IMPRESSIVE’ AND ‘ADRENALINE-FUELLED’ DEBUT NOVEL,
NO COUNTRY FOR GIRLS’
WEDNESDAY 18th OCTOBER 2023, The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation is thrilled to announce that the winner of the 2023 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, Best Published Novel, is Emma Styles with No Country for Girls (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group).
No Country for Girls was selected by judges Felicity Aston MBE, climate scientist, polar explorer, and expedition leader; Leon McCarron, award-winning adventurer, filmmaker, and writer; Simon Savidge, journalist, presenter, Associate Literary Curator at Story House, and founder of the popular blog and BookTube channel @SavidgeReads; and Giles Kristian, acclaimed author and winner of the 2022 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, along with a reader’s vote equating to one seat on the judging panel.
Giles Kristian said: ‘For this prize, No Country for Girls has everything you could want –
living, breathing characters, evocative descriptions, and a journey across an unforgiving landscape. It is an adventure novel through and through.'
Leon McCarron commented: ‘I just love the sense of adventure in No Country for Girls. That road trip is written to perfection. The protagonists are great, and it is full of excitement and jeopardy. It is just what an adventure book should be.’
Styles’ contemporary Australian road trip emerged victorious from an incredibly strong shortlist, comprising three modern and three historical novels.
Niso Smith, Founder, formally announced Styles as the winner at the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize Awards Ceremony, hosted at London’s Royal Geographical Society on Wednesday 18th October.
She said: ‘The entries this year were strong, the shortlist filled with remarkable yarns that push the boundaries of adventure fiction. It was a delight to have such diverse and inventive narratives to share with readers, a testament to this thriving genre and its ability to take readers on exhilarating journeys, through landscapes and experiences.
As for No Country for Girls? It’s gritty. Arresting. A story of young, female empowerment and resilience. A resounding triumph. Congratulations, Emma!’
Niso Smith continued: ‘I want to express our sincere gratitude to the committed librarians and library staff who generously volunteer their time to select the long and shortlists. We had panellists from huge inner-city public libraries to tiny community-run rural libraries, from the North and South of the UK, from coastal communities and the most inland points of the country. The award’s ethos is ‘an adventure for everyone’, so we try to make everyone a part of the process.’
The annual Prize has three distinct categories designed to provide opportunities to published, unpublished and young writers. It is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. Across the categories, the Prize received over 1,000 submissions from 67 different countries.
NEW VOICES AWARD
Also announced at the ceremony were the five writers selected as the winners of this year’s New Voices award, designed to unearth and support aspiring writers as they take a fledgling idea from work-in-progress to completed manuscript.
The five hail from Ghana, the USA and the UK, and will receive nine months of mentorship and one-to-one editorial guidance from a first-rate editor.
Rachel Johnson, Head of Brand at Bonnier Books who sponsor and support the award, said: ‘It is a privilege to be part of the exciting writing journey these five writers are about to embark on.
This year, it has been particularly thrilling to see such original story ideas: from a high school science teacher trying to untangle himself from an unusual criminal gang; to the tension of ten months’ isolation in preparation for a space mission; to being dropped into a new culture with an accompanying political scandal, we have seen fresh ideas and exciting talent. We can’t wait to see how the stories develop over the coming months. Congratulations to the five winners, and good luck!’
For more information on the authors and their works-in-progress, please visit our website.
AUTHOR OF TOMORROW, in partnership with WORLDREADER
Selected by a panel of young judges, the winners of the Author of Tomorrow award for a short adventure story by writers aged 21 and under, are:
11 and Under - Prize: £100 plus £150 book tokens for your school
Winner: Crown of the Crows by Amber XinTi Wang (age 11)
12-15 years - Prize: £100 plus £150 book tokens for your school
Winner: Death & Co. by Luke Zhang (age 14)
16-21 years - Prize: £1,000
Winner: Cold Moon by Tianna Maidens (age 16)
Highly Commended by Niso Smith:
Bear Country by Justin Schwab (age 18)
Each of the ten shortlisted writers worked with an editor to ready their work for digital publication. Then ten stories are now available to read in Worldreader’s app BookSmart, in an anthology titled Aliens, Apocalypse and the Afterlife. Worldreader is a global literacy charity on a mission to make everyone a reader.
To read the anthology, visit https://booksmart.world/kPBL.
For further information about this year’s authors click here.
