Bart van Es won the £30,000 (about $39,280) Costa Book of the Year award for The Cut Out Girl, which the judges described as "the hidden gem of the year. Sensational and gripping, and shedding light on some of the most urgent issues of our time, this was our unanimous winner."
The Cut Out Girl is the seventh biography to take the overall prize. The last biography to win the Costa Book of the Year was H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald in 2014.
Caroline Ward Vine won the £3,500 (about $4,580) Costa Short Story Award for "Breathing Water."
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Barnes & Noble has announced the six finalists for the 2018 Discover Great New Writers Awards. Winners in each category receive a $30,000 prize and a full year of promotion from B&N. Runner-up authors receive $15,000 each, and the third-place finalists $7,500 each. Winners will be announced March 6 in New York City. The finalists, with judges' descriptions, are:
Fiction:
Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth (Harper). "A beautifully written, classic story of brothers and revenge, injustice and honor, set in 1880s Australia."
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (SJP for Hogarth). "At once intimate and epic, this is an unforgettable story of family and identity, past and present, choices and consequences, home and the outside world."
There There by Tommy Orange (Knopf). "Tommy Orange writes about the lives of Urban Native Americans with force and velocity, digging deep into narratives that balance between painful and profound."
Nonfiction:
American Prison by Shane Bauer (Penguin Press). "A ground-breaking inside investigation into the private prison industry and the forces that drive it, told by a journalist who was legitimately hired under his own name with no background check."
Educated by Tara Westover (Random House). "A searing story of growing up off the grid, which becomes an inspirational story of a young woman who saves her own life through her love of books and learning."
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (Scribner). "An insightful, fearless, and often very funny story of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that explores what a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation."