When We Were Birds by UEA writer Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Ayanna (pictured) is from Trinidad and graduated from the University of the West Indies before gaining an MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at UEA in 2018. She is currently completing her PhD in Creative & Critical Writing. When We Were Birds was published by Hamish Hamilton last year and won the Overall and Fiction prizes in the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and is currently shortlisted for the Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award. Ayanna was also announced last year as one of the two winners of the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award. The winners of the Kitsches Awards will be announced on 24 June.
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo wins Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award
