{"id":695484,"date":"2026-07-16T21:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695484\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:04:10","slug":"rebecca-perry-wins-waterstones-debut-fiction-prize-for-delicious-and-dream-like-novel-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695484\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebecca Perry wins Waterstones debut fiction prize for \u2018delicious and dream-like\u2019 novel | Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author and poet Rebecca Perry has won the 2026 Waterstones<\/a> debut fiction prize for May We Feed the King, praised as a \u201cdelicious and dream-like tale\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chosen from a shortlist of six novels, May We Feed the King follows a present-day curator whose job is to dress rooms in historic houses. (\u201cWhen you see a replica feast scene in the great hall of an old building, I am the person who placed the pomegranates beside the pie.\u201d) They become increasingly obsessed by the subject of their latest commission, a medieval king whose own story about his reluctance to rule unfolds in parallel.<\/p>\n

It is \u201ca highly wrought puzzle-box of a book which deliberately wrongfoots the reader at every turn\u201d and \u201crichly rewards those who approach it with curiosity\u201d, Melissa Harrison wrote in her Guardian review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perry will receive \u00a35,000 and a \u201cpromise of ongoing commitment\u201d to her writing career. The award, voted for by Waterstones booksellers, recognises the year\u2019s outstanding work of debut fiction across all genres.<\/p>\n

Waterstones head of books Bea Carvalho praised Perry\u2019s \u201ccrisp, cool prose\u201d and described the novel as \u201ca delicious and dream-like tale steeped in curiosity and nostalgia\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a poet\u2019s eye for detail and a keen sense of humour, Perry grapples with the slippery nature of memory and the burden of power,\u201d Carvalho said. \u201cRebecca Perry is an author to be seriously excited about and we can\u2019t wait to see what she does next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry, who is from London, has published two poetry collections, Beauty\/Beauty and Stone Fruit, alongside several pamphlets and a work of creative nonfiction, On Trampolining. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize, while her debut collection won the Michael Murphy memorial prize.<\/p>\n

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Writing We Feed the King, Perry wanted to explore \u201chistorical fiction as a genre, and how we narrate history\u201d as well as \u201cthe capacities of loneliness and imagination, and ultimately what happens when a person defies what is expected of them, refusing to step into the tyranny of power\u201d.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s other shortlisted novels were Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash,<\/a> Honey in the Wound by Jiyoung Han, Under Water by Tara Menon,<\/a> A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia and The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski.<\/a><\/p>\n

Waterstones launched the prize in 2022. Previous winners include Tess Gunty\u2019s The Rabbit Hutch, Alice Winn\u2019s In Memoriam and Ferdia Lennon\u2019s Glorious Exploits. Last year\u2019s winner was Lucy Steeds\u2019 The Artist<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author and poet Rebecca Perry has won the 2026 Waterstones debut fiction prize for May We Feed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}