We are delighted to announce the results of the 2020 Observer / Burgess Prize.

The Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism is a review-writing prize encouraging budding journalists to submit previously unpublished works of up to 800 words. It is run by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in partnership with The Observer newspaper. Our judges comprised Sarah Donaldson, arts editor at The Observer, Will Carr, deputy director of the Burgess Foundation, and special guest judge – and former Prize winner – Shahidha Bari.

It was another record year for entries, and the new pieces written this time were especially strong. Unfortunately, we can only award three prizes: £3,000 for first place, and £500 each for a pair of runners-up.

The prize entries can act as a rather unscientific measure of the public zeitgeist. Last year, the Floridian singer songwriter Ariana Grande was the most popular subject for reviewing. This year’s most reviewed subject was Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy drama ‘Fleabag’ followed by Boris Johnson’s least favourite grime superstar Stormzy.

This year’s awards ceremony took place in February 2020 at The Observer offices in London. You can see some highlights from the event in the embedded tweets below.

The winners:

First prize (£3,000 plus publication) goes to Lucy Holt for reviewing Waterloo Road: “The plotlines are preposterous and the script heavy-handed…. and I cannot stress this enough, a load of fun.” Read Lucy’s full entry here.

Runners-up prize (£500 plus publication) goes to Poppy Wood for The Mask of Orpheus at English National Opera: “The opera is three-dimensional in every sense of the word, playing with the richness of reality – It is a three-course meal, with pudding first.” Read Popp’s full entry here.

Runners-up prize (£500 plus publication) goes to Paul Bahrami for reviewing Mark Jenkin’s Bait: “This is Luddism, Jenkin denying himself technology to tell the story of those left to the mercy of a changing economy.” Read Paul’s full entry here.

Read more about the Prize here. Entries for next year’s prize will open in spring 2020.

Setting up for the Observer / Burgess prize. Or rather, letting the excellent Observer events team do all the work, and then we just tweet about it. pic.twitter.com/JTYKXs5CQJ

— Burgess Foundation (@anthonyburgess) February 19, 2020

An added touch to this year’s Observer / Burgess ceremony: each shortlistee gets their own newspaper mock-up. Sterling work by @ObsNewReview. pic.twitter.com/LWiAgLRhea

— Burgess Foundation (@anthonyburgess) February 19, 2020

Congratulations to our shortlistees. Runners-up receive £500 each, and the winner gets £3,000. Thanks to judge Shahidha Bari and Observer editor Paul Webster for presenting the prizes. pic.twitter.com/ByBulS0ncI

— Burgess Foundation (@anthonyburgess) February 19, 2020

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