Data and Archives Project

James Tait Black Data and Archives Project

Lead judges Dr Hannah Boast and Dr Désha Osborne are working with English literature subject librarian Robert O'Brien to assemble a collection of data related to the prizes. 

This work is part of the James Tait Black Data and Archives Project, inaugurated by Boast and Osborne in 2025.

Materials currently include lists of titles submitted annually (from 2025 onwards); historic shortlists; and relevant archival materials held by the university. 

The prizes are of historic importance, as the UK's joint oldest literary award, yet it is not currently easy to find data on their history, in part because materials have not always been routinely kept.

Findings from the project will gradually be made publicly available, online and open access, in order to support the sharing of literary and cultural data. 

We have already made some exciting discoveries in the university archives that we hope to share soon.

We hope these discoveries will be of interest to researchers, writers, the publishing industry, teachers, and lovers of literature.

We welcome enquiries from researchers interested in the history of the prize, or who may be keen to undertake projects or studies that would support our work.

We are particularly keen to connect with scholars, archivists, or others with data sets, findings, or other materials relating to the prize they may wish to share. 

Any enquiries about this work should be sent to the judges directly (hannah.boast[at]ed.ac.uk/desha.osborne@ed.ac.uk).