Twitter poet up for top novel award? R U sure?

A NOVEL by a poet who made his name on Twitter has been shortlisted in the prestigious Costa Book Award.

Brian Bilston’s debut novel, Diary Of A Somebody, is one of four books nominated in the category of first- time novelists.

He has been nicknamed the ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter’ after his 140character works went viral on the social media site – and he has admitted that he ‘accidentally’ created a career for himself.

In 49- nine- year- old Bilston’s novel, which was published in June, the protagonist is convinced that his New Year’s resolution – to write a poem every day – will change his life. Brian Bilston is a pseudonym.

The Costa judges said the novel ‘gently pokes fun at the everyday, from bin collections to the cut and thrust of the poetry world. Warm, comic and original’.

He will go up against Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams, ‘historical page-turner’ The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins and The Other Half Of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen for the £5,000 category prize. Middle England by Jonathan Coe, Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach, Starling Days by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor will battle it out to be named novel of the year.

The four shortlisted biographies include In Extremis: The Life Of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum and On Chapel Sands: My Mother And Other Missing Persons by Laura Cumming.

The poetry shortlist features Surge, an analysis of the New Cross Fire of 1981 in south London in which 13 black youths died. By film programmer and archivist Jay Bernard, Surge is described as ‘fearless, original and moving’. This year’s Costa Book Awards attracted 701 entries, the most received in one year to date.

The overall winner of the 2019 Costa Book Of The Year receives £30,000 and will be named in January. Books must have been published between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019 and their authors resident in the UK for the previous three years.