Kate Harris
2019 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature Winning Author writes…..
I'm no climber, but I've always been drawn to tales of risk and grandeur, literature that contends with what Annie Dillard described as "a minimum of choices and a maximum of risks." The sort of books, in other words, that alpinists Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman wrote, and that the UK literary award established in their name continues to celebrate. I might never summit an 8000 metre peak myself, but what I get from reading such books is a sense of possibility, a sense of expansiveness akin to how I feel in the mountains themselves, or when travelling somewhere unfamiliar.
I tried to capture that sort of intimacy with immensity in my own book, based on a bike ride along the Silk Road with my best childhood friend Mel Yule. Bonds forged in the mountains tend to be uniquely robust, and while Mel and I forged ours at slightly less insane altitudes than Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker frequented, I like to think our friendship is similar in its verve and spirit, albeit with a less tragic ending. My book is about friendship, but it's also about the nature and meaning of borders, and about the history and sometimes dubious consequences of exploration. One thing my book isn't about, however, is alpinism.
For this reason I figured my chances were slim when it came to the Boardman Tasker Prize, which mostly seemed to recognise mountain literature in quite literal terms: first-hand accounts or histories of hypoxic derring-do. So I was astonished to be shortlisted with an incredible group of writers; the chance to hang out with them at the Kendal Mountain Festival felt like a win in itself. I was even more astonished to take home the prize. So a deep bow of gratitude to the Boardman Tasker Prize jury for this amazing honour, and for their open-minded conception of what mountain literature can be. Another bow of gratitude to the mountains themselves, and to the friendships that make our journeys on and among them so potent, so meaningful, so full of joy and absurdity and wonder.
Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road
Harper Collins
Mick Fowler
BT Shortlisted author writes…..
“You have been shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker”.
It’s an exciting message to receive.
And the award event at the Kendal Mountain Festival was so much more of a big thing than I had expected. The majority of the shortlisted authors were from North America and all were present to be interviewed by Stephen Venables and read a chosen exert from their book. I hadn’t expected all the authors to be there! Nor had I expected such a vibrant and well-attended event. I came away feeling that mountain related writing is alive and well.
No Easy Way: The Challenging Life of the Climbing Taxman
Vertebrate Publishing
Geoff Powter
BT Shortlisted author writes….
It was such an immense pleasure for me to be shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award, and such a joy to be able to come to Kendal for the BT event and ceremony. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were two of my mountaineering and mountain-writing heroes, and to have my own writing considered worthy of their memory was a huge honour. The team, and the audience, at Kendal couldn't have been more welcoming, and the event made it clear just how important mountain literature continues to be, for so many people. We writers were treated a bit like Rock-Stars by the crowd!
Inner Ranges: An Anthology of Mountain Thoughts and Mountain People
Rocky Mountain Books
In 2019, Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature, won the Climbing Literature Award at the Banff Mountain Book Festival, and won the National Outdoor Book Award in the USA.