The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards.[1] Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, United Kingdom, the prizes were founded in 1919 by Janet Coats Black in memory of her late husband,[2] James Tait Black, a partner in the publishing house of A & C Black Ltd.[3] Prizes are awarded in two categories: Fiction and Biography. A Drama prize was awarded from 2013-2019.
From its inception, the James Tait Black prize was organised without overt publicity. There was a lack of press and publisher attention, initially at least, because Edinburgh was distant from the literary centres of the country. The decision about the award was made by the Regius Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh.[1]
In 2012, a third prize category was announced for Drama, with the first winner of this award announced in August 2013.[3] The drama prize was paused after the 2019 award, during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of February 2026[update] the drama prize remains paused.[5]
Selection process and prize administration
The winners are chosen by research and teaching staff within the Department of English and Scottish Literature at the university, who are assisted by postgraduate students in the shortlisting phase, a structure that is seen to lend the prizes considerable gravitas. At the award of the 2006 prizes, at which Cormac McCarthy was a winner, McCarthy's publisher commented positively on the selection process, noting that, in the absence of a sponsor and literary or media figures amongst the judging panel, the decision is made by "students and professors, whose only real agenda can be great books and great writing".[6] The original endowment is now supplemented by the university and, as a consequence, the total prize fund rose from 2005 awards.[7] Each of the two annual prizes—one for fiction and one for biography—is worth £10,000.[3][8] The university is advised in relation to the development and administration of the Prize by a small committee which includes Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and James Naughtie amongst its members.[citation needed] In August 2007 the prize ceremony was held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the first time.[9]
Eligibility
For the book prizes works of fiction and biographies must be written in English. The nationality of the author does not matter, but submissions must be first published (or co-published) in Britain during the calendar year of the award. Any given author can only win each prize once. However, he or she can win both prizes at the same time.
For the drama category, the work had to be originally written in either English, Gaelic or Welsh, be produced first during the previous calendar year, have a playing time over one hour, and to have been performed no fewer than seven times by a professional theatre company.[10][11]
In 2012, a special prize was given called the 'Best of the James Tait Black' (in addition to the normal prize for that year).[38][39] The award celebrated the fiction winners over the past 93 years, as part of the 250th anniversary of the study of English Literature at the university. A shortlist of six previous winners competed for the title of Best. A judging panel of celebrity alumni and writers decided on the winner, which was announced on 6 December 2012 as Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus.[40]
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