CD Rose awarded the 2025 Goldsmiths prize

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CD Rose has won the 2025 Goldsmiths prize for his novel We Live Here Now, praised by judges as “hilarious and deeply haunting”.

The £10,000 award, now in its 13th year, honours “mould-breaking” fiction. The winner was announced at a ceremony in central London on Wednesday evening.

Born in Manchester and now based in Hebden Bridge, Rose is the author of four previous books. We Live Here Now is his first to be shortlisted for the Goldsmiths prize. Through a series of short stories, the novel looks at the after-effects of the disappearances of visitors to an art installation.

Amy Sackville, judging chair and senior lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, described the winning title as “a book about what art is and what it does (or doesn’t do)”.

Author and fellow judge Simon Okotie called We Live Here Now “a dizzying, encyclopaedic series of stories linked by texture, resonance and suggestion”. He said the book traces “the invisible circuits and networks – of love, capital and war – that shape our contemporary lived experience”.

Tanjil Rashid, culture editor at the New Statesman, which co-runs the prize, said Rose’s “dazzling and strange fictions reveal his incredible gift for writing”, adding: “I’m so glad he is receiving the recognition and readership he deserves so early in his career.”

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This year’s judging panel also included novelist Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Porpoise, and writer Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation and Ordinary Human Failings.

The other shortlisted authors were Colwill Brown for We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, Yrsa Daley-Ward for The Catch, Sarah Hall for Helm, Ben Pester for The Expansion Project, and Charlie Porter for Nova Scotia House.

The prize was open to novels published between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025, written in English by citizens of the UK or Ireland, or authors who have been resident in either country for three years and have their book published there. Previous winners of the prize include Eimear McBride, Ali Smith and Isabel Waidner. Last year, Rachel Cusk won for her novel Parade.