Diana McCaulay’s THE HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE wins the 2026 RSL Ondaatje Prize

Congratulations to Diana McCaulay, whose A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE (Dialogue Books) has won the 2026 RSL Ondaatje Prize!

The £10,000 prize, presented annually by the Royal Society of Literature, celebrates a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place. McCaulay was announced as the winner at an event held on 1st June at Two Temple Place in London.

McCaulay said: “To evoke the spirit of a place has been the animating intention of all my novels and stories.”

She added: “My character Miss Pauline, who is 99 years old, has a saying: ‘Rest me down easy, because I am a cracked plate.’ Tonight I feel a bit like a cracked plate. This is an amazing honour. I have known of this prize since its inception. I cannot believe I am standing here in front of you.”

McCaulay is a writer and environmental activist based in Kingston, Jamaica. She has published six novels and has twice won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, in 2012 and 2022. She is also the founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust.

For more information, see the article in The Bookseller here.