“Nothing in my life, except the love of a good woman, has been more important than books,” said the novelist and critic Anthony Burgess in 1992. Over 30 years, starting in 1960, Burgess wrote more than 400 cultural commentaries and book reviews for the Observer in his erudite, witty and unaffected style. Famously unconventional, he preferred the term “reviewer” to critic, and was once fired by the Yorkshire Post for writing a negative review of his own work under a pseudonym.
The Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for arts journalism has become a fixture in the cultural calendar since it launched in 2012, its aim to celebrate the writer’s career at the Observer and to inspire and encourage emerging arts writers. The prize rewards the best previously unpublished review of a new work or show.
In 2018, the winning entry was Jason Watkins’s lively piece about Pigspurt’s Daughter at the Holbeck Underground Ballroom in Leeds and Watkins has since had reviews published in the Observer New Review’s books pages. In the spirit of Burgess’s curiosity, entrants can write about any art form – last year’s shortlist included reviews of Ariana Grande live, a show of Anni Albers’s textiles, a video game about press intrusion and a book on the Twitter account @dril. Have a go!
Entries must be no longer than 800 words. The closing date is 30 November 2019. The prize is presented by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and the Observer; the judging panel consists of the critic and former Burgess prize winner (2014) Shahidha Bari, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation’s deputy director, Will Carr, and the Observer arts editor, Sarah Donaldson.
First prize is £3,000 (two runners-up will receive £500 each) and the winning review will be published in the Observer.
To enter and for terms and conditions visit anthonyburgess.org. Read reviews from past winners and runners-up here.
