Awarded annually since Britain’s Olympic year (2012), and crafted locally by silversmith Christopher Hamilton, the Hay Festival Medals draw inspiration from the original Olympic medal given for poetry.
Hay Festival medals in 2023 are awarded to a quartet of world-changing storytellers, honouring exceptional work in fiction, poetry, prose and songwriting:
Mererid Hopwood (Medal for Poetry) has spent her career weaving connections between language, literature, education and the arts. For her poetry, she has won the National Eisteddfod of Wales’ Chair, Tir na n’Og prize, Crown and Prose Medal and Welsh Book of the Year prize. Her lockdown contribution to Hay Festival in 2020 – ‘What’s Wales in Welsh’ – has become one of our most viewed events ever on Hay Player. Watch her medal event now.
Alice Oseman (Medal for Fiction) is an award-winning author, illustrator and screenwriter. She has written four YA contemporary novels about teenage disasters – Solitaire, Radio Silence, I Was Born for This and Loveless – and is the creator of LGBTQ+ YA romance webcomic Heartstopper, reaching an even wider audience when the TV adaptation was released on Netflix last year. Watch her medal event now.
Salman Rushdie (Medal for Prose) is a prize-winning novelist who has participated in Hay Festival conversations for decades in the UK and further afield. His latest novel, Victory City, will be launched at Hay Festival 2023 by a panel including Margaret Atwood and Elif Shafak, while he continues his recovery from last August’s brutal attack. Watch his medal event now.
Serhiy Zhadan (Medal for Songwriting) is Ukraine’s rock star poet. Born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast, he is a writer of fiction, poetry and – with his band Zhadan i Sobaky (Zhadan and the Dogs) – songs blending rock, ska and punk. Documenting the struggles of his compatriots caught in a brutal war, he has become one of the country’s most important writers and an essential voice in world literature. Listen to his medal event now.
2023 |
Medal for Fiction – Alice Oseman Medal for Poetry – Mererid Hopwood Medal for Prose – Salman Rushdie Medal for Songwriting – Serhiy Zhadan |
2022 |
Medal for Drama – David Harewood Medal for Journalism – Lyse Doucet Medal for Poetry – Robert Minhinnick Medal for Prose – Jacqueline Wilson |
2021 | Medal for Drama – Emerald Fennell Medal for Journalism – George Monbiot Medal for Poetry – Benjamin Zephaniah Medal for Prose – Ali Smith |
2020 | Medal for Journalism – Lydia Cacho Medal for Poetry – Inua Ellams Medal for Prose – Hilary Mantel |
2019 | Medal for Journalism – Carole Cadwalladr Medal for Poetry – Julia Donaldson Medal for Illustration – Axel Scheffler Medal for Fiction – Eric Vuillard
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2018 | Medal for Prose – Margaret Atwood Medal for Poetry – Evelyn Schlag Medal for Illustration – Jackie Morris
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2017 | Medal for Drama – Daniel Morden Medal for Prose – Philippe Sands Medal for Fiction – Cressida Cowell Medal for Festivals – Ahdaf Soueif
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2016 | Medal for Drama – Gregory Doran Medal for Poetry – Gillian Clarke Medal for Prose – Janine di Giovanni Medal for Song – Laura Marling
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2015 | Medal for Drama – Alan Bennett Medal for Education – Germaine Greer Medal for Illustration – Chris Riddell Medal for Prose – Robert MacFarlane |
2014 | Medal for Drama – Hans Rosenfeldt Medal for Prose – Karl Ove Knausgaard Medal for Illustration – Oliver Jeffers |
2013 | Medal for Fiction – John le Carre Medal for Poetry – Owen Sheers Medal for Drama – Miranda Hart |
2012 | Medal for Drama – Abi Morgan Medal for Poetry – Simon Armitage Medal for Prose – Jeanette Winterson |