Ondaatje Prize

Not to be confused with Royal Canadian Geographical Society § Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration.

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someone who is a citizen of or who has been resident in the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.^[1]

Ondaatje Prize
Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize
Awarded for	work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, "evoking the spirit of a place"
Sponsored by	Sir Christopher Ondaatje
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Royal Society of Literature
First award	2004 (2004)
Website	Official website

The prize bears the name of its benefactor Sir Christopher Ondaatje.^[2] The prize incorporates the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, which was presented up to 2002 for regional fiction.^[3]

Winners

Year	Author	Title	Ref.
2004	Louisa Waugh	Hearing Birds Fly
2005	Rory Stewart	The Places in Between
2006	James Meek	The People's Act of Love	[4]
2007	Hisham Matar	In the Country of Men	[5]
2008	Graham Robb	The Discovery of France	[6]
2009	Adam Nicolson	Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History	[7]
2010	Ian Thomson	The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica	[8]
2011	Edmund de Waal	The Hare with Amber Eyes	[9]
2012	Rahul Bhattacharya	The Sly Company of People Who Care	[10]
2013	Philip Hensher	Scenes from Early Life	[11]
2014	Alan Johnson	This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood	[12]
2015	Justin Marozzi	Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood	[13]
2016	Peter Pomerantsev	Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible	[14]
2017	Francis Spufford	Golden Hill	[15]
2018	Pascale Petit	Mama Amazonica	[16]
2019	Aida Edemariam	The Wife's Tale	[17]
2020	Roger Robinson	A Portable Paradise	[18]
2021	Ruth Gilligan	The Butchers (also published as The Butchers' Blessing)	[19]
2022	Lea Ypi	Free: Coming of Age at the End of History	[20]
2023	Anthony Anaxagorou	Heritage Aesthetics	[21]
2024	Ian Penman	Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors	[22]
2025	Carys Davies	Clear	[23]