The Costa guide awards, after operating for half a century, have been abruptly scrapped. The espresso store chain has stated the 2021 awards, which have been introduced in February this 12 months, have been the final.
In an announcement from the corporate, which is owned by Coca-Cola, Costa’s CEO Jill McDonald stated: “After 50 years of celebrating among the most fulfilling books written by vastly proficient authors from throughout the UK and Eire, Costa Espresso has taken the troublesome determination to finish the guide awards.”
McDonald added that the corporate was “extremely proud” to have supported the awards, and thanked “all those that have been concerned and supported them over time”.
The awards have been established in 1971 and referred to as the Whitbread guide awards till 2005, when Costa took over the operating and financing. Whitbread bought Costa to Coca-Cola in 2019. This 12 months, the entire prize fund for the awards was £60,000.
The guide of the 12 months for 2021 was The Youngsters by Hannah Lowe, a former London trainer, whose guide of sonnets drew on her experiences in an inner-city sixth kind.
The kids’s guide of 12 months prize was the one literary award received by Roald Dahl, for The Witches in 1983. General guide of the 12 months winners have included Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf, which narrowly beat JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999. Iris Murdoch and Paul Theroux have been winners within the Nineteen Seventies, and Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass grew to become the primary kids’s guide to win guide of the 12 months in 2001.
Costa – which in line with reviews of dad or mum firm Coca-Cola earlier this 12 months has been having fun with robust gross sales – stated that there aren't any plans for the awards to be taken over by anybody else. The corporate has not but given a motive for closing them.
Bea Carvalho, head of fiction at Waterstones stated, “The Costa guide awards have performed an enormous half within the success of among the best possible English-language books during the last 50 years and have helped to raise the careers of among the most enjoyable, necessary and proficient writers at work in the present day.” She added that booksellers will “miss the prize vastly” however that she and her colleagues “sit up for championing the wonderful earlier winners together with The Mermaid of Black Conch, H is for Hawk, and Small Island for a few years to return. The Costa awards’ affect in our bookshops doesn't finish right here!”
Novelist Damian Barr tweeted: “Oh no! I used to be a choose this 12 months - all of the class judges and your crew did such nice work. The prizes have achieved a lot to get so many books to so many individuals. What a disgrace!”
Nelle Andrew, a literary agent with RML, additionally tweeted to precise dismay. “Devastated to listen to the information,” she wrote. “This can be a large blow for the trade and authors alike. Thanks to the awards for the championing they've achieved in 50 years however it's a large loss & reinforces how necessary they have been to us all.”
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