The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation has announced that the winner of the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, Best Published Novel, is Francesca de Tores with Saltblood.
Saltblood was selected by judges Matt Barr, writer, journalist and host of the Looking Sideways Action Sports podcast; Lee Craigie, former professional mountain bike racer and director of The Adventure Syndicate; Dr Alasdair Harris, marine conservationist and National Geographic Explorer; Sarah Outen, record-breaking athlete and therapist; and Emma Styles, author and winner of the 2023 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.
Niso Smith, Founder of the Prize, announced de Tores as the winner at a private reception in London on Thursday 19th September. Smith said:
Adventure writing is timeless. Readers will always relate to the driven and free-thinking characters at the centre of these novels. De Tores has created a protagonist defiant of convention; a woman who, despite her start in life, transforms and learns to truly know herself. Saltblood is a triumph of imagination – breathtaking and boundless. My sincere congratulations to Francesca
The book
De Tores’s novel charts the life of Mary Read, one of the few recorded female pirates during the 1700s ‘Golden Age of Piracy’, fictionalising her story and filling in the many gaps left by minimal historical reports.
Saltblood was chosen from a six-strong shortlist, which included three debuts. It follows in the footsteps of 2023’s winner, No Country for Girls by Emma Styles, marking two consecutive wins for Australian novelists.
Prize judge, Matt Barr said:
The 2024 shortlist showcases six remarkable books, and six remarkable authors, who also have unique and clearly defined takes on what adventure means – and help us as readers rediscover it anew for ourselves. We find adventure recast in various different beautiful ways, whether it’s through the heartbreaking story of Pietro and Massimo in wartime Italy; the subtle yet rollicking high seas picaresque that is Saltblood; Obie’s devastating, delicate journey through post same sex prohibition Nigeria; Our Hideous Progeny’s hugely impressive queer, feminist recasting of the Frankenstein story; Hard by a Great Forest’s savagely hilarious investigation into generational trauma and Georgian geopolitics, or Light Over Liskeard’s sly pre-apocalyptic musings.
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