The eight winners of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015 were announced today (Thursday 18 June) by chair of judges India Knight.

Now in its fifth year, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize is the only prize to solely award British writers, unique in its aim to celebrate great British fiction. Each year it awards a group of eight writers with £5,000 each, rather than choosing one winner.

The winning books are:

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton)

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth (Canongate Books)

Mobile Library by David Whitehouse (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

Mother Island by Bethan Roberts (Chatto & Windus, Penguin Random House)

Significance by Jo Mazelis (Seren Books)

The Incarnations by Susan Barker (Doubleday, Transworld)

The Offering by Grace McCleen (Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton)

The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies (Salt)

Expansive, thought-provoking and spanning genres from suburban noir and magic realism, to alternate history and crime, these eight books reflect the originality and breadth in British fiction today.

Commenting on the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered winners, chair of judges India Knight comments:

“We could not be more delighted with our list of winners. There is something for everybody here – a guaranteed brilliant read across all sorts of genres. I’m constantly being asked to recommend books to people: here are eight fantastic reads, from all sorts of writers up and down the country, all of which deserve the widest possible audience”.

Matthew Bates, fiction buyer for WHSmith Travel and judge comments:

“WHSmith Travel is once again delighted to be supporting the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered winners in store. This diverse, accessible and highly original selection of novels showcases the cream of British literary talent today, and the writers to watch for the future.”

Sophie Rochester, prize founder comments:

“It’s a great privilege to be able to award these eight writers with prize money today. For five years now we’ve worked with publishers, literary agents, retailers, libraries, regional development agencies and, most importantly, readers to create this celebration of British writing. It feels like a fantastic achievement to have reached a fifth year anniversary today, and support for the initiative – and its unique remit of supporting British fiction writing – is growing all the time.”

WHSmith Travel will be running an eight-week summer promotion featuring all eight winning Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize titles. The titles will feature in stores across the UK from 25 June 2015.

To celebrate this year’s winners, Jerwood Fiction Uncovered FM will return to the airwaves on Sunday 21 June. The annual radio station dedicated to discussing great British fiction will be on Resonance FM at 104.4fm and via www.resonancefm.com. Guests will also include the winning authors, the 2015 judging panel and other British fiction writers including Catherine Hall, Nikesh Shukla, Matt Thorne, Alex Wheatle, broadcaster Nikki Bedi and Danuta Kean.

At the announcement party on Thursday night; the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered winning writers were presented with a bespoke hand-bound copy of their book. All the papers are designed and made in Britain. The spine decorative is hand tooled in gold foil. Only two raised bands were used to give a traditional look but with a contemporary feel. And because every big birthday deserves a great cake, a 5th birthday ‘edible art installation’ by cake artist Jane Collings was revealed at the party. The cake featured all 40 winning titles from the prize’s 5-year history on two sugar-coated book shelves and measured 38cms wide, 45cm high, 15cm deep.