At the British Book Awards’ 2022 ceremony in London. Image: From the live video feed, British Book Awards
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
The 2o23 edition of the British Book Awards, also called the Nibbies, has announed its many jurors for this year’s set of one of the biggest arrays of categories in publishing’s many contests.Those categories include:
- Children’s Illustrated
- Children’s Nonfiction
- Children’s Fiction
- Crime and Thriller
- Debut Fiction
- Fiction
- “Pageturner”
- Nonfiction: Lifestyle and Illustrated
- Nonfiction: Narrative
- Audiobook: Fiction
- Audiobook: Nonfiction
- “Discover”
- Overall Book of the Year
Although the British Book Awards traditionally include a large contingent of industry awards, it’s these public-facing accolades that get most of the promotional attention.
‘Stirred Our Hearts and Imaginations’
Image: British Book Awards
This set of awards, for example, is said in media messaging today (February 2) to showcase “the authors and illustrators who have stirred our hearts and imaginations, and the industry behind the scenes that has brought them to readers.”
The awards ceremony this year is set for May 15, again at London’s Grosvenor House, and shortlists are anticipated by March.
A trend toward “celebrity” jurors continues this year, and when those are included in the overall list, the program is fielding 47 jurors.
Philip Jones
The British Book Awards are a brand of The Bookseller, of course, as Publishing Perspectives readers know, and in a prepared statement on the news of the chosen jurors, Bookseller editor Philip Jones is quoted, saying, “We are delighted to welcome such an illustrious crop of judges to this year’s celebrations. The breadth, range, and profile of those joining us this year are both a reminder of the stature of the British Book Awards.”
Jurors announced today include:
- Helen Thorn
- Liz Pichon
- Poorna Bell
- Dorothy Koomson
- Louise Johns-Sheperd
- Zoey Dixon
- Vaseem Khan
- Abir Mukherjee
- Imriel Morgan
- Jake Hope
- Anna Bassi
- Nina Findley
- Imogen Russell Williams
- Alison Flood
- Sharon Canavar
- Lucy Knight
- Alice Kemp-Habib
- Matthew Cornford
- Joanne Finney
- Bea Carvalho
- Paula Sutton
- Ashley Bruce
Among those categorized as featured jurors announced today are:
- Krishnan Guru-Murthy, of Channel 4 News
- Anita Rani, also a broadcaster as well as an author
- Joseph Coelho, a Waterstones Children’s award laureate
- Vick hope, another broadcaster and radio host
- Ellie Taylor, a comedian and actor
- Alexandra Schulman, a journalist and author
- Fleur Sinclair, the owner of Sevenoaks Bookshop
- Simon Richardson, a BBC producer
- Lauren Layfield, broadcaster and writer
We’ll have more details of this year’s award cycle as the May ceremony approaches.
More on the British Book Awards is here. More from us on publishing and book awards in general is here. And more on the UK book market and industry is here. Porter Anderson is a former associate editor of The FutureBook at The Bookseller.