American reworking of Dickens classic wins world’s oldest literary prize

An American author has said it was a “bit surprising” for her to win the world’s oldest literary prize with a novel which reworks a Charles Dickens classic.

Barbara Kingsolver was named as one of the two winners of the James Tait Black Prize, taking the honours in the fiction section for her book Demon Copperhead.

She said the award was “such a touching tribute” to the novel, which is a reimagining of David Copperfield set in the Appalachian Mountains of the US in the late 1990s.

Kingsolver said: “It feels a bit surprising for the very old and distinguished James Tait Black Prize to recognize the modern, working-class Appalachian voice of my novel.

Fellow American Darryl Pinckney was declared the winner in the biography section for his memoir Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan.

The book tells the story of the New York writer’s apprenticeship with authors Elizabeth Hardwick and Barbara Epstein, and his introduction to the city’s famous literary scene.

Biography judge Dr Simon Cooke, of the University of Edinburgh, described Pinckney’s winning book as “thoroughly absorbing”, adding it was a “vivid, nuanced, and moving tribute to Elizabeth Hardwick, a fascinating portrait of a place, time and milieu, and a profound meditation on memory, friendship and the literary life”.

Fiction judge Dr Benjamin Bateman, also of Edinburgh University, said Demon Copperhead was “a captivating piece of realist literature which is exceptional across all of the dimensions we look for”.