Marianne Brooker won the Fitzcarraldo Editions Mahler & LeWitt Studios essay prize for her essay proposal “Intervals,” which explores choice, interconnectedness, and end-of-life care.
The annual competition for unpublished writers awards £3,000 to the author of the best book-length essay proposal, by a writer residing in the UK and Ireland who has not yet entered into a contract editing. In addition to the cash prize, in the form of an advance against publication with Fitzcarraldo Editions, the winner has the opportunity to spend up to two months in residence at Mahler & LeWitt Studios in Spoleto, Italy, during the summer 2022, to work on their book. The book will then be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
“While an intervention describes the act of intervening – to save a life or hasten a death – an interval describes the intimate and collective work of stepping back, creating space and marking time,” said the director. editor’s analysis. “Combining memoir, polemics and feminist philosophy in order to transform mourning into a resource for politics, ‘Intervals’ explores the space between closeness and complicity, retracing the author’s care for his mother as she refused to eat and drink. at the end of his life, determined to end his suffering from primary progressive multiple sclerosis. “Intervals” draws our attention to a shared history of creativity, solidarity and fear, and a demand for a fairer and safer future. »
Brooker is a writer based in Bristol, where she works in local community-led media. She was previously co-editor of Ecologista climate justice news website. She earned a BA and MPhil in English from Cambridge University and has a PhD in English Literature from Birkbeck, which she worked on while caring for her mother.
“I’m so happy to have won the award, and with it the time and space to write,” she said. “It will be an honor to work on ‘Intervals’ with the team at Fitzcarraldo Publishing, who have helped me create some of my favorite books. Huge thanks to them and the judges.
The other shortlisted authors, chosen from 124 applications, are Chloe Evans for “Elastic Bands”, Holly Isard with “Molecular Visions”, Benoit Loîseau for “Fast”, Oliver Shamlou for “Shabaneh” and Stephanie Y Tam with “Radio Silence”.
Publisher Jacques Testard added: “We are delighted to welcome Marianne Brooker to Fitzcarraldo. His proposal for ‘Intervals’ stood out in a highly competitive field, once again demonstrating the vitality of the trial form in Britain and Ireland.
The 2022 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize was judged by Testard, Joanna Biggs, Brian Dillon, Joanna Kavenna and Max Porter.
The prize was won last year by Heather McCalden for “The Observable Universe”.