University of Edinburgh · award year

James Tait Black Prizes 2022

The 2022 James Tait Black Prizes went to Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan by Darryl Pinckney (Biography) and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Fiction). 8 books made the shortlist across 2 categories.

Winners

Biography

  1. Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattansource (opens in a new tab)

Fiction

  1. Demon Copperheadsource (opens in a new tab)

Shortlist

Biography

  1. A History of Water: Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global Historysource (opens in a new tab)
  2. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coastsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Homesicksource (opens in a new tab)

Fiction

  1. After Sapphosource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Bitter Orange Treesource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Bollasource (opens in a new tab)

About the James Tait Black Prizes

Fiction and Biography shortlists and winners; Drama (2012-2019) is excluded. Year is the prize year as the University labels it: the books' publication year, with winners announced the following summer (the 2024 prizes were announced in August 2025). Each book appears once, as Winner or Shortlist. 2023 Biography had joint winners. Shortlists from University of Edinburgh news releases (ed.ac.uk, cahss.ed.ac.uk, james-tait-black.ed.ac.uk, and a 2010 University Bulletin PDF for 2009) for 2009, 2010 and 2012-2025. Fallbacks where no university page survives: 2006 from RTE, 2007 from The Guardian, 2008 from BBC News, 2011 from Deadline News. Shortlist sizes vary: 6 per category in 2006, 5 in 2007-2009 and 2025, 6 Biography in 2023, 5 Biography in 2024, 4 otherwise.

Organization: University of Edinburgh. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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