“After 50 years of celebrating some of the most enjoyable books written by talented authors from across the UK & Ireland, Costa Coffee has taken the difficult decision to end the Costa Book Awards. What a great 50 years it’s been!,” a post by Costa Book Awards’ official Twitter handle read.
“This means that the 2021 Costa Book Awards held in February 2022 was our 50th and final awards,” reads a statement on their official website. No particular reason was given for ending the awards. Currently, there seem to be no plans for the awards to be organised by another sponsor.
The sudden announcement took publishers and readers by surprise. Here’s how some of them responded:
Oh no! I was a judge this year – all the category judges and your team did such great work. The Prizes have done so much to get so many books to so many people. Is this decision final? What a shame!
— Damian Barr (@Damian_Barr) June 10, 2022
Devastated to hear the news about the Costa Book Awards. This is a huge blow for the industry and authors alike. Thank you to the awards for the championing they have done in 50 years but it is a huge loss & reinforces how important they were to us all.
— Nelle Andrew (@Nelle_Andrew) June 10, 2022
The awards were initially called the Whitbread Book Awards till 2005, after which it was taken over by Costa for financing and running it. In 2019, Whitbread sold Costa to the company Coca-Cola, which was now running the awards. The annual awards were given to authors from the UK and Ireland for their remarkable work in five categories, namely: First Novel, Biography, Novel, Poetry, and Children’s Book.
Some of the previous winners of the Costa Book Awards include authors Sally Rooney, Gail Honeyman, Hannah Lowe, among others.
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