Living Canon

Costa Book Awards 2013: Complete list of winners

The 2013 Costa Book Awards celebrated a remarkably diverse year in British and Irish publishing, with winners spanning everything from intergenerational ghost stories to ambitious literary fiction that plays with time itself. Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life, which won the Novel category, stood out as a particularly striking achievement—a sweeping exploration of a woman living multiple lives across the twentieth century that showcased the award’s appreciation for formally inventive storytelling. The Costa Book Awards, one of the UK’s most prestigious annual literary honors, continued their tradition of recognizing excellence across six categories, and this year’s selections reflected both commercial appeal and serious artistic ambition.

Beyond Atkinson’s win, the 2013 Costa Awards revealed how rich the year had been across different genres and formats. Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s The Pike, a biography that brought Renaissance Italy vividly to life, claimed the Biography prize, while Nathan Filer’s debut The Shock of the Fall earned First Novel honors with its innovative narrative structure centered on mental illness. Michael Symmons Roberts brought home the Poetry award for Drysalter, and Chris Riddell’s Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse continued the Costa’s strong tradition of celebrating children’s literature with gothic charm and beautiful illustration. Angela Readman’s The Keeper of the Jackalopes rounded out the winners in the Short Story category, demonstrating the award’s commitment to recognizing shorter fiction alongside full-length works.

Here’s the complete rundown of this year’s Costa Book Awards winners:

Biography

Children’s Book

First Novel

Novel

Poetry

Short Story

  • The Keeper of the Jackalopes by Angela Readman