The Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism
- The Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism
- 2023 Result
- Terms and conditions
- Last year's result
- Previous winners
- The Journalism of Anthony Burgess
2023 Result:
This is the results page for the 2023 Observer / Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism.
We asked your best reviews of newly-released works in the arts. The word limit was 800 but the subject matter certainly wasn’t restricted. Music, literature, exhibitions, streams, theatre, telly — whatever would make for a great critique.
From a record number of entries, we produced a longlist of 25 reviews. This is the first longlist in the prize’s ten-year history. Our judges – Fiona Maddocks and Sarah Donaldson from the Observer newspaper, and Andrew Biswell from the Burgess Foundation – then whittled the 25 to a final shortlist of six.
The winner will be announced on 21 February 2023 on this YouTube live stream (embedded below). There will also be a live event in London, to which the shortlistees will be invited, and a simultaneous online announcement broadcast from the Anthony Burgess typewriters exhibition in Manchester.Two runners-up win £500 each, with the overall winner receiving £3,000 and publication in the Observer newspaper.
We extend a huge thanks to everyone for entering.
The winner
The shortlist
Cerise Louisa Andrews — Hallyu! The Korean Wave exhibition at the V&A
Sample line: “…The work is a dazzling blur of gold, white and red on black. A shimmering glory of light blazing through darkness…”
En Liang Khong — Tanoa Sasraku’s exhibition at Vardaxoglou
Sample line: “…As the fabric dries out, striated lines of sediment appear. Look closely and you can see the wispy dried-out fronds of bog matter…”
Heather Booton — Football: Designing the Beautiful Game exhibition at the Design Museum
Sample line: “…a messy knot of bans, discrimination, and countless women who played without pay or recognition or silverware…”
Johanne McAndrew — The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 12
Sample line: “…Armed with buoyant bank accounts, monstrously swollen egos and massively bloated lips, they run amok in surely LA’s most extravagant suburb…”
Luke Hallam — Perhat Tursun’s novel The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang
Sample line: “…The Backstreets will inevitably be received as a totem to the Uyghurs, first and foremost. It is that. But it is also more…”
Rob Mutter — Brett Morgen’s film Moonage Daydream
Sample line: “…Beyond Beckenham, London, England; beyond norms of gender and sexuality; beyond sanity; beyond the confines of rock and pop; beyond the confines of life on Earth…”
The longlist
Alice Kent — Geoff Dyer’s memoir The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings
Anna Godfrey — Hannah Starkey’s exhibition In Real Life at The Hepworth Wakefield
Cerise Louisa Andrews — Hallyu! The Korean Wave exhibition at the V&A
Daniel Newsham — Parham Ghalamdar’s exhibition A Fine Kettle of Fish at HOME
En Liang Khong — Tanoa Sasraku’s exhibition at Vardaxoglou
Heather Booton — Football: Designing the Beautiful Game exhibition at the Design Museum
Holly Fairgrieve — William Klein’s exhibition YES at the International Center of Photography
Ian Cowmeadow — Executions exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands
Isobel Flower — Simon Reade’s play A Single Man at the Park Theatre
Johanne McAndrew — The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 12
Joseph Clarke — Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 at the Teatro alla Scala
Kirsten Tambling — Reframed: The Woman in the Window exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
Luke Hallam — Perhat Tursun’s novel The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang
Maya Jones — Annie Ernaux’s memoir Getting Lost
Michael Delgado — Hlynur Palmason’s shoft film Nest
Miles Beard — Tao Lin’s novel Leave Society
Peter Davies — Eric Ravilious’s film Drawn to War
Pragya Agarwal — Turner Prize 2022 exhibition at Tate Liverpool
Rob Mutter — Brett Morgen’s film Moonage Daydream
Rory Sullivan — Dorthe Nors’ memoir A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast
Rory Sullivan again — Jafar Panahi’s film No Bears
Sarah Watling — T-Minus’s numerous album releases including Washing Machine Sounds
Sarah Dempsey — Andrew Dominik’s film Blonde
Sasha Cyril — Jeremy O. Harris’s play Daddy at the Almeida Theatre
Stephen Poole — Darren Aronofsky’s film The Whale
