Shortlist revealed for Gordon Burn Prize 2025
Six new titles, five by women, invite us into compelling but vividly contrasting worlds
Six books have made the shortlist for the £10,000 Gordon Burn Prize 2025 with the winner to be announced on March 6 at a ticketed public event at Northern Stage in Newcastle.
They are…
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (published by Daunt Originals)
The American author’s debut novel, which was also longlisted for the Booker Prize, tells of eight young female boxers engaged in a championship tournament. Rita Bullwinkel is assistant professor of English at the University of San Francisco.
Ootlin by Jenni Fagan (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The writer, who grew up in the Scottish care system, has written four novels (one, Luckenbooth, was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize in 2021) and several poetry collections. This is an account of her early life in which she was moved repeatedly from home to home.
Mrs Jekyll by Emma Glass (CHEERIO)
The third novel by Welsh writer Emma Glass, now based in London where she is also a children’s nurse, tells of a young woman suffering from terminal cancer and has been described as a tender and devastating reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Poor Artists by Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad, aka The White Pube (Particular Books)
The one-time art college friends began writing provocative art critiques online in 2015. Their first book, which features dialogue from anonymous interviews with real-life artists, follows fictional artist Quest Talukdar on a surreal journey into a flawed art world.
Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands (Phoenix)
The Scottish writer’s debut novel, described as “vibrant, lyrical and fiercely funny”, tells of growing up in a grotty coastal town and dreaming of better things. In 2021 Tom Newlands was chosen for New Writing North’s A Writing Chance programme which showcases writers from under-represented backgrounds.
The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate)
The “gripping” account by the British-Australian author and legal reporter of the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, imprisoned for her part in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, has also been called “a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome”.
The Gordon Burn Prize commemorates the Newcastle-born author (1948 - 2009) of books including Alma Cogan, The North of England Home Service and Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son: The Story of Peter Sutcliffe.
It was founded in 2012 by New Writing North, Faber & Faber and the Gordon Burn Trust and is open to writers for work written in English and published in the UK the previous year.
It is supported by Newcastle University and the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA).
As well as the £10,000 prize, the winner gets the chance to undertake a writing retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire.
Of this year’s shortlist, Terri White, who chaired the five-strong judging panel, said: “These six books bump up against the limits not just of fiction and non-fiction, insisting that they shift, but the very limits of our world. They're the stories that followed us home, demanding to be heard."
Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, said: “The list abounds with interesting perspectives on trauma, power and art. A tremendous and diverse range of books and writers and all worth reading.”