Shortlist 2019
Our £3000 journalism prize is to be awarded at a ceremony to be hosted in London by the Observer newspaper, on Wednesday 20 February 2019.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation announces the shortlist for the Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. Now in its seventh year, the £3000 prize is for lively and thought-provoking reviews of new work in the arts.
The prizes are presented by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and the Observer. Anthony Burgess wrote hundreds of reviews over 30 years for the Observer newspaper: find out more about his journalism in our archive here.
The nine shortlisted pieces were selected by a distinguished panel of judges including novelist and poet Bernardine Evaristo, arts editor of the Observer Sarah Donaldson, and deputy director of the Burgess Foundation Will Carr.
The shortlisted reviews are:
- Peter Chappell: Anni Albers at Tate Modern, London
- Micha Frazer-Carroll: thank u, next by Ariana Grande
- George Grylls: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980 at MoMA, New York
- Amber Murray: Rip it Up at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
- Yohann Koshy: Dril Official ‘Mr. Ten Years’ Anniversary Collection by Dril
- Tara McEvoy: American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
- Michael Perrett: Waqas Khan at Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
- Jason Watkins: Pigspurt’s Daughter at Holbeck Underground Ballroom, Leeds
- Kate Wyver: Sorry to bother you by Dan Hett
The prize received a record number of entries from around the world. The judges were delighted to read many pieces of exceptional quality on a wide range of subjects, including classical and popular music, television, fine art, book reviews and much more besides.
Anthony Burgess himself won few prizes in the country of his birth, but did receive the 1979 ‘Critic Of The Year’ award from the Press Association. As well as their cheques, the winners of the Observer /Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism will receive replicas of the small plastic plaque presented to Burgess by Margaret Thatcher. More about this famous occasion is here.
