The Penderyn Music Book Prize, now celebrating its 6th year, is the first UK-based prize specifically for music titles, including history, theory, biography, and autobiography, with the NME calling it, ‘The Mercury Prize For Books.’
Organiser Richard Thomas:
‘It’s long been an oddity that while there are prizes for the best sports book of the year, the best travel book, the best food and drink book, there has never been a prize for the best music book. Publishers and booksellers alike agreed that this was indeed a prize waiting to happen, and one they’d gladly support.’
The prize is awarded at the annual Laugharne Weekend and is sponsored by Penderyn Distillery. The prize is for UK published books only and was launched in 2015, with the winner announced at the Laugharne Weekend each year. The winner receives a cheque for £1000 and a bottle of Single Cask Whisky worth £300.
Previous winners include Mark Lewisohn, Jon Savage, Daniel Rachel, Stuart Cosgrove and Shirley Collins, the iconic 60s folk singer who won last year for her autobiography, ‘All In The Downs.’ On winning the prize, Shirley Collins told a packed room, ‘I can’t tell you how much winning this prize means to me. It is incredible!’
The judges for the 2020 prize are Chalkie Davies, Jeremy Deller, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Mark Thomas, Eliza Carthy, Charles Shaar Murray and Richard Boon.
The long list for the 2020 prize is:
Afternoons With The Curtains Drawn – Brett Anderson (Little, Brown)
Cruel To Be Kind – Will Birch (Constable)
Up Jumped The Devil – Bruce Cornforth (Omnibus Press)
A Fabulous Creation – David Hepworth (Bantam Press)
Revenge of The She Punks – Vivien Goldman (Omnibus Press)
The Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else – Jon Savage (Faber & Faber)
Record Play Pause – Stephen Morris (Constable)
It Gets Me Home This Curving Track – Ian Penman (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Fried and Justified – Mick Houghton (Faber & Faber)
Another Planet – Tracey Thorn (Canongate Books)
Crossroads – Mark Radcliffe (Canongate Books)
The Lark Ascending – Richard King (Faber & Faber)
Year of The Monkey – Patti Smith (Bloomsbury Publishing)
A Seat at The Table – Amy Raphael (Virago)
Stephen Davies Chief Exec of Penderyn:
‘Good stories, music and the finest single malt go hand-in-hand. As we all love our music at the distillery, we are delighted to sponsor this exciting prize.’
For more information, please visit: www.penderynprize.com