Since 1991, the Young Writer of the Year Award has become perhaps our most prescient bellwether of future talent, with previous winners including Simon Armitage, Zadie Smith, Max Porter and Sally Rooney.
This year’s shortlist is rich in stylistic flair and thematic variety, ranging from an intensely powerful depiction of Rastafari boyhood in 1980s Bristol to a luminous meditation on how country living enriched three extraordinary writers’ creative careers.
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 18 March.
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