Nero Book Awards
The Nero Book Awards are British literary awards, inaugurated in 2023. They are run by coffeehouse chain Caffè Nero in partnership with the Booksellers' Association, Brunel University London, and Right To Dream, "a football community dedicated to expanding people's understanding of excellence through football".
The awards are made in four categories: children's fiction, fiction, debut fiction, and non-fiction. A short list of four is drawn up for each category, and category winners are chosen, receiving £5,000. There is then a further selection process before one of the category winners is awarded the £30,000 "Golden Nero" award as "Book of the year". The awards are open to books published in the UK and Ireland, and at the time of entry the author must be alive and have been resident in the UK or Ireland for three years. The criteria for the awards are described as: "Our judges will be asked to choose the books they would most want to press into the hands of friends and family for their quality and readability."
Timeline
For the 2023 awards, announced in 2024 for books published predominantly in 2023, the timeline was:- 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023: Publication date for eligible books
- 19 June 2023 - 21 July 2023: Submission of entries
- 21 November 2023: Shortlists announced
- 30 January 2024: Category winners announced
- 14 March 2024: Golden Nero overall winner announced
Shortlists and winners
The overall winner for each year is shown in boldface, and category winners are indicated by highlighted rows.| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result | Ref. |
| 2023 | ' | Hamish Hamilton | Overall winner Fiction winner | ||
| 2023 | Birnam Wood | Granta | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Ordinary Human Failings | Jonathan Cape | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Fifteen Wild Decembers | Europa | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Close to Home | Hamish Hamilton | Debut fiction winner | ||
| 2023 | ' | Bloomsbury | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | ' | Chatto & Windus | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Sunburn | Verve | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | ' | Puffin | Children's fiction winner | ||
| 2023 | Gwen and Art Are Not in Love | Bloomsbury | Children's fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Bitterthorn | Andersen Press | Children's fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Wild Song | Children's fiction shortlist | |||
| 2023 | Strong Female Character | Brazen | Non-fiction winner | ||
| 2023 | ' | Coronet | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Undercurrent | Coronet | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2023 | Hags | Fleet | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2024 | ' | Maurice and Maralyn | Chatto & Windus | Overall winner Non-fiction winner | |
| 2024 | Pixel Flesh | Headline | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | ' | W. H. Allen & Co. | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | All That Glitters | Profile Books | Non-fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Lost in the Garden | Dead Ink | Fiction winner | ||
| 2024 | Levitation for Beginners | Abacus | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | ' | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Heart, Be at Peace | Doubleday | Fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Wild Houses | Jonathan Cape | Debut fiction winner | ||
| 2024 | Monumenta | Canongate Books | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | Glorious Exploits | Fig Tree | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | No Small Thing | Serpent's Tail | Debut fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | ' | Pushkin Press | Children's fiction winner | ||
| 2024 | Bird Boy | Nosy Crow | Children's fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024 | How to Survive a Horror Movie | Little Tiger | Children's fiction shortlist | ||
| 2024' | Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody'' | Walker Books | Children's fiction shortlist |