Gordon Burn Prize

The Gordon Burn Prize was launched in 2013 as a vehicle by which "to reward fiction or non-fiction written in the English language, which in the opinion of the judges most successfully represents the spirit and sensibility of [Gordon Burn]'s literary methods: novels which dare to enter history and interrogate the past ... literature which challenges perceived notions of genre and makes us think again about just what it is that we are reading."^[1]

The prize is jointly organised by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North and Faber & Faber. The winner receives a prize sum (originally £5,000), and is offered the use of Burn's cottage in Berwickshire as a writers' retreat.^[1] Up until 2024, the prize ceremony was generally the first event of the Durham Book Festival. In 2024, the prize fund was doubled to £10,000 due to new sponsors and the award ceremony relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne.^[2][3]