At the end of January, Costa Coffee held the awards ceremony of Costa Book Awards, a contest dedicated to celebrating the best literary works by writers and poets based in UK and Ireland. This year, the awards ceremony was held at Quaglino’s in central London.

The first prize went to London-based poet Jo Shapcott for her book of poetry ‘Of Mutability‘. This collection of poems published by Faber and Faber reveals the author’s experience of surviving a breast cancer.

Image: www.costabookawards.com, Jo Shapcott, winner of 2010 Book of the Year

The panel of judges for each book genre included both professional literary criticis and the person whose opinion would represent and express the tastes and views of general public. Here’s what the judges said about the book written by the Ms. Schapcott: «These strong poems are rooted in the poet’s experience of breast cancer but are all about life, hope and play. Fizzing with variety, they are a paean to creativity and make the reader feel that what matters to us all is imagination, humanity and a smile.»

Jo Shapcott was born in London in 1953 where she’s been living all her life.  She is the author of several collections of poems including ‘Electroplating the Baby’ (1988), ‘Phrase Book’ (1992), and ‘My Life Asleep’ (1998). Jo has been twice awarded the first prize of the National Poetry Competition.

Costa Book Awards is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the UK. In course of this competition, the judges are to select the best authors in 5 categories, such as: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children’s Book. The winner in each category receives £5,000. However, the final prize goes to the book which is recognized the best out of the 5 finalists.  It becomes Book of the Year and receives the grand prize of £30,000, making a total prize fund of £55,000.

The history of the Costa Book Awards goes back to 1971, when the literary contest started as the Whitbread Literary Awards. In 2006, Costa Coffee became the owner of the ceremony, so it was renamed to Costa Book Awards.

Image: www.costabookawards.com, 2010 Costa Book Awards category winning authors