Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch wins Costa Novel Award

Roffey now in running for overall £30,000 Costa Book of the Year

Author and lecturer Dr Monique Roffey’s book The Mermaid of Black Conch has won the Costa Novel Award – one of the country’s most prestigious popular literary prizes.

Her novel, a lyrical and vivid story of love, loss, family and friendship, was crowned the winner on BBC Front Row on Monday by an expert judging panel. Judges called it “a story of rare imagination” and “a glorious myth”. 

She joins an esteemed who’s who of previous Costa Award winners from the last half century of British literature, including Hilary Mantel, Sally Rooney and Mark Haddon – author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Along with the winners of best First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book, Dr Roffey could now win the overall £30,000 Costa Book of the Year prize when it is revealed by judges later this month.

Dr Roffey, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan University, said: "A prize like this is a blessing for any writer, I'm delighted to win this award. It's not just a vote for the mermaid but for publisher indie press Peepal Tree Press who have been publishing the best in Black British and Caribbean writing for 40 years.

“It’s wonderful when books like mine get recognised by prizes with such a wide reach. Peepal Tree Press and I want everyone to enjoy The Mermaid of Black Conch and this award will help get the mermaid seen and read by a wider readership.”

A prize like this is a blessing for any writer, I'm delighted to win this award.

Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born British writer of seven novels, essays, a memoir and literary journalism. Her novels have been translated into five languages and shortlisted for several major awards including most recently the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 which celebrates original and inventive writing. In 2013 her novel Archipelago won the OCM BOCAS Award for Caribbean Literature.

She is the fifth current member of the Manchester Writing School to win a Costa Award, following Andrew Michael Hurley’s Best First Novel Award in 2015, two-time winners of the Poetry Award Professors Carol Ann Duffy and Michael Symmons Roberts, and Professor Jean Sprackland, who also won the Poetry Award in 2007.

The overall 2020 Costa Book of the Year winner will be selected by a panel of judges chaired by historian, author and broadcaster Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and comprising category judges Jill Dawson, Sadie Jones, Horatio Clare, Zaffar Kunial and Patrice Lawrence joined by actor and writer Stephen Mangan, television and radio presenter Angellica Bell and presenter and book vlogger Simon Savidge, and will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony hosted by presenter and broadcaster Penny Smith on January 26.

Set in a tiny Caribbean village in the 1970s, The Mermaid of Black Conch follows Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid, who becomes entranced by a fisherman and his song.

It’s wonderful when books like mine get recognised by prizes with such a wide reach.

The book explores themes of unconditional love, friendship, family and loss, examined without sentimentality. Roffey writes convincingly about a mermaid, a ‘legend drawn from the sea’, returned to land, to survive, heal and live again, as a real woman in modern times.

Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo has described Roffey as “a unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers”, while the Sunday Times hailed The Mermaid of Black Conch as “an arresting slice of Caribbean magic realism… Sensuous, beguiling but without whimsy.”

Monique is part of a fantastic team of novelists and short-story writers teaching in our Writing School whose work has been achieving growing recognition and success in recent years.

Professor Jess Edwards, Head of English at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: I’m delighted at this win for Monique’s latest novel. Publishing and literary prizes are often focused on new writers, and this kind of achievement in mid-career is hard won and good to see. We often celebrate the strength of poetry at Manchester Met; Monique is part of a fantastic team of novelists and short-story writers teaching in our Writing School whose work has been achieving growing recognition and success in recent years.”

Jill McDonald, CEO of Costa Coffee, said: “Five outstanding books and five very worthy Award winners – what a wonderful way to start the year.  The Costa Book Awards are all about recognising great writing and a good read and we’re very proud to be announcing such a brilliant collection of books for readers to explore and enjoy.”