When We Were Birds by UEA alumna Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell 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 previously won the Overall and Fiction prizes in the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and the 44th annual Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize, the Jhalak Prize, and 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.
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo wins Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award
