This year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize has been announced. The prize was established in the UK in 2017 before getting a U.S. version, and seeks to support small presses, which often take the biggest literary risks with fewer financial means.
This year’s UK winner is Charco Press because of the book Of Cattle and Men by Brazilian writer Ana Paula Maia, translated by Zoë Perry. The short book — which Judge Sana Goyal describes as a “gut-punch of a novel — takes place in an isolated part of Brazil where it seems like cows are dying by suicide.
Stateside, City Lights Publishers won because of their book Lojman by Turkish writer Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu. It follows a mother who is isolated by a snowstorm, abandoned by her husband, and about to give birth to her third child.
So far, the Republic of Consciousness Prize has awarded £60,000/$74,756 to small presses. You can read more about the UK’s winner here, and the U.S.’s other shortlisted titles here.
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