Granta’s Best Young British Novelists ft Steven Hall at IABF

Since its first release in 1983, the Granta Best of Young British Novelists, a list of 20 of the most exciting novelists under the age of 40, has become a prescient naming of the authors who will go on to dominate the British literature scene and influence the writing culture of the nation. Writers such as Zadie Smith, on the list again this year, Martin Amis and Alan Hollinghurst have all graced the list in various years. Now 2013’s writers have been announced and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation will be welcoming three from the list. Adam Foulds, Xialou Guo and Steven Hall will be reading and discussing their work with Granta online editor Ted Hodgkinson. The choice of the three authors highlights the varied nature of the list. Steven Hall’s first, and to date only, novel Raw Shark Texts has won him numerous plaudits already with Waterstone’s and The Telegraph marking him out as one for the future. He’s also written for Dr Who and computer games (pictured). Adam Foulds has won awards for both his poetry and literature, including a place on the Booker Prize shortlist for his 2009 novel, The Quickening Maze. Xialou Guo represents the multi-cultural feel of the list, and is part of the female-majority contingent on the list. Her work shows a very personal take on China’s past and its future place in the modern, globalised environment. While you can never be certain where the literary scene will be at in a decade, these three writers will certainly give you a taste of the exciting work still going on in Britain’s literature scene.

Thu 25 Apr, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, M1 5BY. Tel: 0161 235 0776, 6.30pm, FREE, www.anthonyburgess.org. Booking advised at events@anthonyburgess.org