Rathbones Folio Prize

Acclaimed, bestselling Irish novelist Colm Tóibín was tonight awarded the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize for his novel The Magician, a haunting, intimate portrait of the exiled German Nobel winner Thomas Mann.

In March, Carmen Maria Machado won the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. While the competition has been open to books of any genre or form since 2017, this is the first time that a memoir has claimed the £30,000 award. Here, as we reflect on the history of the prize, the judges explain the importance of broad eligibility criteria.

We were delighted to announce Carmen Maria Machado as the winner of the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize for her breathtakingly inventive, unflinching memoir In the Dream House.

Boundary-defying works: British and Irish writers lead shortlist alongside fresh US voices.

The T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Roger Robinson, the Irish writer, editor and broadcaster Sinéad Gleeson and novelist and short story writer Jon McGregor have been announced as judges for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize.

The winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize will be announced this evening at a fully digital award ceremony. 

Zadie Smith, Ben Lerner and Valeria Luiselli make wide-ranging shortlist for Rathbones Folio Prize.

The 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize shortlist shows extraordinary range, risk and imagination – and confirms the quality of international writing today

Rathbones Folio Prize announces renewed sponsorship by Rathbone Investment Management, with a substantial boost in support and prize money increased to £30,000

As the nation and the world prepared to commemorate a hundred years since the end of the First World War, on 7 November bestselling author Sebastian Faulks and former war correspondent Andrea Catherwood joined Rathbones clients and staff to discuss their own experiences and thoughts on telling the stories of war.

Since it was established in 2014, the Rathbones Folio Prize has sought to set itself apart from existing literary awards. This means not just championing the finest contemporary writing, but looking to the future to promote a diverse and inclusive literary culture and nurture outstanding new talent.

At a ceremony at The British Library on Tuesday 8 May, Rathbones CEO Philip Howell hailed the “incredible books” on the shortlist and presented Richard Lloyd Parry with a cheque for £20,000 for his work, Ghosts of the Tsunami.

Listen to the authors talk about their shortlisted works – what they are about, and what they would like readers to take away with them. 

With less than a week to go before the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize for 2018 is announced, Rathbones guests enjoyed an evening of discussion between two of the nominated authors and one of the judges. 

Two novels on this year’s Rathbones Folio Prize shortlist explore the difficulties of communicating and the different forms that communication takes in the 21^st century.

For more than a half-a-century, as people all over the world have left their homes in search of peace and prosperity, migration has been one of contemporary literature’s central subjects. 

Original, diverse and international – this year’s shortlist encapsulates what the Rathbones Folio Prize is all about. 

Access the first few chapters of all of the Rathbones Folio Prize shortlisted books digitally for free. Read just for yourself or chat online with others about this great selection of books not to be missed. 

Unrestricted by genre category and chosen by writers, this Prize really does discover the ‘Book of the Year’

Each year, three to five members of the Academy will be invited to judge the Prize. This year, judges will consider a total of 60 books, which will be nominated by the Academy.

The Folio Academy is group of esteemed writers and critics committed to the written word and the power it has to challenge, engage and connect people. Writers of fiction and non-fiction, poets, foreign correspondents and everything in between create an academy of diverse background, experience and ideas.

It’s not just about celebrating the great writing of today, it is also important to nurture the great writers of tomorrow.

The Rathbones Folio Sessions are a series of public debates and discussions across the country which brings together members of the Folio Academy to discuss the ideas and issues that shape our world.

The shortlist for the 2017 Rathbones Folio Prize has been announced!