British Barbadian opera singer and author, Peter Brathwaite, and Peruvian writer and journalist, Joseph Zárate, were announced as the 2025 winners of the Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award at the British Library in December 2024.

Brathwaite and Zárate were selected from a seven-strong shortlist of writers, which included voices from the UK, Spain, Peru, Trinidad, and the Caribbean. Braithwaite’s work, Not All of Me Will Die, is a non-fiction exploration of identity, history and memory, through the lens of his Barbadian and British heritage. Zárate’s submission, Todo nace en el agua y muere en ella, will be the first account of the Amazon River, its communities, cities and history written by a Latin American with Amazonian indigenous roots.

The two winners will each be awarded £20,000 and a residency at the British Library. They will also have the opportunity to showcase their published work at future editions of the Hay Festival and will collaborate with the Eccles Institute to develop and lead events and activities related to their research at the British Library.

Now in its 14th year, the award was judged by a panel comprising Eccles Fisher Associates Director and Chair of Judges, Catherine Eccles; Hay Festival International Director, Cristina Fuentes La Roche; Head of the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania at the British Library, Polly Russell, Director of WritersMosaic, Colin Grant; and Deputy Head of the Eccles Institute, Mercedes Aguirre.

Polly Russell, Head of the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania at the British Library, said: ‘We are thrilled to present Peter Brathwaite and Joseph Zárate with this year's Global Writer's Award and cannot wait to see how Library's collection will support and feed into their works. Peter’s project promises to uncover hidden collections and connections about Barbados in new and exciting ways and Joseph’s project, drawing on his indigenous heritage and more than 300 interviews with people who live along the Amazon, will tell a new story of the river and region.’

Cristina Fuentes La Roche, International Director at Hay Festival, said: ‘From a thrilling shortlist of writers, we are delighted to celebrate Peter Brathwaite and Joseph Zárate as this year’s Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Writer’s Award 2025 winners. Each is engaging with important issues preoccupying our world, here and across the Americas. We look forward to seeing their work develop further with this support and one day sharing their stories on our global stages.’