We're delighted to hear that Seren poet Rosalind Hudis, whose collection Restorations was published earlier this year, has been shortlisted for the Gladstone Library Writers in Residence award for 2022. 

Every year, Gladstone Library hosts four authors as part of this highly competitive and prestigious award, which is designed to support emerging and established novelists and poets working within a broad spread of literary genres. The award is now in its eleventh year. Every applicant is required to have published a book within the last three years and is asked to write a short piece of writing in which they discuss liberal values.  

The 12 shortlisted writers for 2022 are:  

Sarah Watling, The Olivier Sisters 
Carys Bray, When the Lights Go Out 
Glen James Brown, Ironopolis 
Rosalind Hudis, Restorations 
Francesca Haig, The Cookbook of Common Prayer 
Rebecca Watts, Red Gloves 
Victoria Gosling, Before the Ruins 
Suji Kwok Kim, Notes from the North 
Amy Sackville, Painter to the King 
Alice Jolly, The Aspergers’ Dilemma 
Caoilinn Hughes, The Wild Laughter 
Guy Stagg, The Crossway

Winning authors will be offered a residency extending up to a month at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden which is the UK’s only residential library. It has provided quiet and comfortable spaces for writers and researchers for more than a century.  

Previous winners of the award include poets Katrina Naomi, (anoter Seren poet and author of Wild Persistence), Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Harmless Like You), and Angela Topping (Grimm Rules), novelists Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent, Essex Girls) and Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist), and nonfiction writers such as William Atkins (The Immeasurable World: A Desert Journey) and Richard Beard (The Day that Went Missing). 

The judging panel for 2022 consists of Freddie Baveystock, Trustee of Gladstone’s Library and teacher at Harris Westminster Sixth Form, alongside previous Writer in Residence winners; journalist and non-fiction author Charlotte Higgins, award-winning poet Jonathan Edwards, and writer, reporter, and editor Cal Flyn.  

Peter Francis, Warden of Gladstone’s Library, said: 

“The past eighteen months have demonstrated how crucial time, space and support are in terms of fostering creativity. We know our residency programme is valued by our award applicants, and we are looking forward to offering that support once again.” 

Judging will take place on October 4.