Join us at 7pm on Wednesday 4 August for a very special event and the announcement of the PEN Ackerley Prize 2021 winner, including a live Q&A with the winning author.

The shortlisted writers, Darran Anderson, Jean Sprackland and Claire Wilcox, will be in discussion about their work, the role of objects in autobiography and how the dead continue to shape our lives, with biographer and historian Peter Parker  (Chair, PEN Ackerley Prize).

The discussion and winner announcement will be followed by a live Q&A with the winner.

The shortlisted titles are:

Darran Anderson, Inventory: A River, A City, A Family (Chatto & Windus) 

Jean Sprackland, These Silent Mansions (Jonathan Cape)

Claire Wilcox, Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes (Bloomsbury)   

The PEN Ackerley Prize was established in memory of Joe Randolph Ackerley (1896–1967), the author and long-time literary editor of The Listener  magazine. The prize is awarded annually to a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British nationality, and published in the UK in the previous year. The PEN Ackerley Prize is judged by biographer and historian Peter Parker (Chair), writer and editor Michael Caines, author Georgina  Hammick, and writer and critic Claire Harman. The winner receives a cheque for £3,000.