High Tide makes Guardian First Book Award longlist 02 September 04

Established in 1999, the Guardian First Book Award includes everything from non-fiction to poetry, and High Tide’s companions on today’s longlist include works about the Sicilian mafia, the story of Noah’s Ark retold with one-line postmodern jokes, and a volume of poems about water. The Guardian’s literary editor Claire Armitstead is chair of the judging panel for the £10,000 award, and other judges include the novelists Hari Kunzru and Ali Smith, the author and academic Lewis Wolpert, the barrister and cultural critic Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, the theatre director Sir Richard Eyre, the author and comedian Alexei Sayle, and the Guardian’s deputy editor, Georgina Henry. Readers’ groups from Waterstone’s bookshops in London, Glasgow, Nottingham, and Manchester also get a say in the outcome, and the shortlist will be announced in early November.