We are immensely proud of Kathryn Scanlan, who has won the £10,000 Gordon Burn Prize for Kick the Latch—a poised and vivid novel about one woman’s life at the race track, based on transcribed interviews with horse trainer, Sonia. Published by Daunt Books in the UK, and New Directions in the US, Kick the Latch was described by the judges as “a rare beast, setting out with a premise that feels neatly bordered but revealing itself almost immediately to be a desperately consumable piece of literature, pushing boundaries in terms of form and structure but never becoming inaccessible”, and “a thundering achievement, liberated from hard lines of genre and form by a laser focus on not just excavation but building of voice”.

The Gordon Burn Prize recognises literature that is forward-thinking and fearless in its ambition and execution, often playing with style, pushing boundaries, crossing genres or challenging readers’ expectations. Founded in 2012 by New Writing North, Faber & Faber and the Gordon Burn Trust, it has built a reputation for identifying and celebrating brilliant books that often find their readers outside the mainstream.

Kick the Latch is available from all good bookstores, and you can also find it online here.