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Jason Cockcroft Announced as 2024 Winner!

At the York Book Award Ceremony on Friday 15th March, Jason Cockcroft was announced as winner of the 2024 York Book Award for his spectacular Running With Horses. 

Jason said about his win:

I’m hugely honoured that my novel, Running with Horses, published by Andersen Press, has won the 2024 York Book Award.

Usually, when I write I avoid picturing a reader in mind, in case I become self-conscious and immediately begin to restrict the story I’m setting out to tell. But once a book is published and let loose on the world, it is no longer solely the author’s story. You learn to relinquish ownership, knowing that whoever picks it up will infuse it with their own experiences, their own imagination and their own understanding of love and hate and whichever themes your story touches upon. For a writer, that’s the scary part and, also, the rewarding part, because reading isn’t a passive activity, but a creative one. It’s both a lesson in empathy and an act of empathy. Every reader who reads your book transforms it, and often for the better.

If you ask any author which awards prove to be the most significant and meaningful to them, they will inevitably admit that the awards voted for by the readers themselves make the most impact. To know that your work has connected emotionally with someone is incredibly moving.

So my thanks to all the students involved in judging the five books on the shortlist, to the librarians and teachers of the ten schools taking part, who provide an essential role in expanding the horizons of readers, and to anyone who sat down and shared their time with my characters, Rabbit and Joe. I know they will have been very pleased and proud that you showed them such an act of generosity.

The ceremony was a wonderful celebration of reading and creativity. Students from schools around York gathered together for the event hosted by last year’s winner, Ann Sei Lin, joined by two of our shortlisted authors – Jason Cockcroft and Frances Hardinge – and we were joined on Zoom by Andy Ruffell and Robin Stevens. Simon James Green was sadly unable to make it but sent us a brilliant video, and had spent the Monday before the ceremony in York visiting participating schools, engaging and inspiring students from York High School and The Joseph Rowntree School.

The Student Prizes were awarded by the Lord Mayor of York, the Reverend Councillor Chris Cullwick and the Lady Mayoress, Mrs Joy Cullwick, who presented the Student Review Prize to Laura from All Saints Catholic School for her wonderful review of Finn Jones Was Here, and Mr Barry Crux, Master of the York Company of Merchant Taylors, presented the Student Creative Prize to Stella from St Peter’s 8-13 for her beautiful heron sculpture for Unraveller. We were honoured to also be joined by Sue Hunter, the Sheriff of York, and the Sheriff’s Consort, Mr Nigel Goodwin.

For a full account of the 2024 ceremony, please see our page on the event.

Nominations for the 2025 York Book Award

Nominations are now open for the 2025 award!

If you are a librarian, bookseller, or publisher, please check our nomination criteria and email us with any nominations at yorkbookaward@gmail.com, with the subject line “2025 Nomination”.

Nominations will be open until September 30th 2024.

We look forward to hearing from you!