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Costa Book Awards 2019 – Shortlists

It’s that time of year again, when the Costa Book Awards shortlists are announced. 20 books made it to 2019’s shortlist under five categories; First Novel Award, Novel Award, Biography Award, Poetry Award, and the Children Book Award.
For nearly 50 years, the Costa Book Awards, originally known as the Whitbread Book Awards when it began in 1971, have been celebrating and championing books by authors based in the UK and Ireland. The awards have become “Recognised as one of the UK’s most prestigious and popular book prizes.”

This evening, announced live on the BBC’s Front Row with Kirsty Lang, the Costa Book Awards category shortlists were exclusively revealed. “The Costas have a reputation for picking accessible, popular reads so get ready to note them down because you might get some ideas for this year’s Christmas presents,” exclaimed Lang in the lead up to the big reveal. Joining Kirsty Lang to discuss the books on the shortlists were critics; Alex Clark and Sarah Shaffi and you can hear that full discussion on BBC iPlayer. Now, without further ado, here are the shortlisted literary works…

Novel Award

First Novel Award

Biography Award

Children’s Book Award

Poetry Award

We’ll have to wait until next year to find out the winner for each category which will be revealed on 6th January 2020. Then Costa’s overall Book of the Year, chosen from the category winners, will be announced later in the same month on the 28th January 2020.

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