Hatchet Job of the Year
British journalism award
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Hatchet Job of the Year was a British journalism award given annually from 2012 to 2014 to "the writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past twelve months".[1] It was awarded by The Omnivore, a review aggregator website,[2] with the aim to "raise the profile of professional critics and to promote integrity and wit in literary journalism".[1] The prize was a year's supply of potted shrimp.
Awards
2012
Winner:
Shortlist:
- Mary Beard on Rome by Robert Hughes (The Guardian)
- Geoff Dyer on The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (The New York Times)
- Camilla Long on With the Kisses of His Mouth by Monique Roffey (The Sunday Times)
- Lachlan Mackinnon on Clavics by Geoffrey Hill (The Independent)
- Leo Robson on Martin Amis: The Biography by Richard Bradford (New Statesman)
- Jenni Russell on Honey Money by Catherine Hakim (The Sunday Times)
- David Sexton on The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy (London Evening Standard)
Judges:
- Suzi Feay, Rachel Johnson, Sam Leith, D.J. Taylor
2013
Winner:
Shortlist:
- Craig Brown on The Odd Couple by Richard Bradford, (The Mail on Sunday)
- Ron Charles on Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis, (The Washington Post)
- Richard J. Evans on Hitler: A Short Biography by A.N. Wilson, (New Statesman)
- Claire Harman on Silver: A Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion, (London Evening Standard)
- Zoë Heller on Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie, (New York Review of Books)
- Allan Massie on The Divine Comedy by Craig Raine, (The Scotsman)
- Suzanne Moore on Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf, (The Guardian)
Judges:
- Lynn Barber, John Walsh and Francis Wheen[3]
2014
Winner:
Shortlist:
- Craig Brown on Distant Intimacy: A Friendship in the Age of the Internet by Frederic Raphael and Joseph Epstein, (The Mail on Sunday)
- Rachel Cooke on Strictly Ann: The Autobiography by Ann Widdecombe, (The Observer)
- Lucy Ellmann on Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland, (The Guardian)
- Peter Kemp on The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, (The Sunday Times)
- Frederic Raphael on A Delicate Truth by John le Carré, (The Times Literary Supplement)
- David Sexton on The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, (London Evening Standard)
- Hedley Twiddle on The Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux, (New Statesman)
Judges:
Press coverage
The award has been covered by the BBC,[6] The Guardian,[7] Huffington Post,[8] The Daily Telegraph,[9] Los Angeles Times, New Statesman, The Paris Review, Salon.com, The Scotsman, Time, The Washington Post, and The Week.