For the first time in three years, the full Goldsmiths Prize ceremony has taken place, and the winner has been announced. Diego Garcia by Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams was named the winner of the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize on Thursday evening, as reported by The Guardian.
For the win, they received the £10,000 prize. It is the first time a collaborative work has won the award.
Diego Garcia is about two writer friends, Damaris and Oliver, who move to Edinburgh from London, where Oliver’s brother passed away. It is there they meet Diego Garcia. Diego tells them he was named after the island his mother was from in the Chagos archipelago, which she was forced to leave by the British. The two friends then become interested in that incident as well as the Chagossian people themselves and want to write about it.
Ali Smith, one of the judges, described the novel as an “extraordinary achievement.” The chair of judges, Tim Parnell, said it was “by turns, funny, moving, and angry” and “as compelling to read as it is intricately wrought.” Other judges included author Natasha Brown and New Statesman executive editor for culture Tim Gatti.
The other finalists for the prize included Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer, Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi, Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi, Seven Steeples by Sara Baume and There Are More Things by Yara Rodrigues Fowler.