Last year’s result:

This is the results page for the 2023 Observer / Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism.

We asked for your best reviews of newly-released works in the arts. The word-count was 800 words but the subject matter certainly wasn’t restricted. Music, literature, exhibitions, Netflix, theatre, TV — whatever made for an incisive critique.

From a record number of entries, we produced a longlist of 25 reviews. Our judges — Fiona Maddocks and Sarah Donaldson from the Observer newspaper, and Andrew Biswell from the Burgess Foundation — whittled down the longlist to a final shortlist of six.

The winner was announced on 21 February 2023 at a live ceremony in London and on this YouTube live stream (embedded below), broadcast from the Burgess Foundation in Manchester. Two runners-up won £500 each, with the overall winner receiving £3,000 and publication in the Observer newspaper.

We extend a huge thanks to everyone for entering.

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Winners and shortlist

Winner: En Liang Khong — Tanoa Sasraku’s exhibition at the Vardaxoglou Gallery
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.’

Runner-up: Luke Hallam — Perhat Tursun’s, 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.’

Runner-up: 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.’

Shortlist: 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.’

Shortlist: 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.’

Shortlist: 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.’

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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 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 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, The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang

Maya Jones — Annie Ernaux’s memoir Getting Lost

Michael Delgado — Hlynur Palmason’s short film Nest

Miles Beard — Tao Lin’s novel Leave Society

Peter Davies — Drawn to War: Eric Ravilious on film

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 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

 

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