Ali Smith to be awarded the prestigious Bodley Medal as part of the Oxford Literary Festival

Celebrated Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist Ali Smith is to be awarded the Bodleian Libraries’ highest honour, the Bodley Medal, for her outstanding contribution to the world of literature.

The accolade, awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the worlds of books and literature, libraries, media and communications, science and philanthropy, will be presented as part of the 2024 Oxford Literary Festival. At the event, The Bodley Lecture and Award of the Bodley Medal: Life and Work, Ali Smith will be in conversation with Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian. It will take place on Thursday 21 March at 6pm in the Sheldonian Theatre. 

First presented in the seventeenth century, the Bodley Medal tradition was revived in 2002. Previous recipients, when given in conjunction with the Bodley Lecture, have included Peter Carey (2012), Dame Hilary Mantel (2013), Professor Dame Mary Beard (2016), Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (2019), Zadie Smith (2022), and Colm Tóibín (2023).

Described as ‘Scotland’s Nobel Laureate-in-waiting’, Ali Smith is a multi-award-winning author whose works have won the Goldsmith’s Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize. She has also been shortlisted for the Booker Prize four times. Her novels and short story collections include The Accidental, Hotel World, How to be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. Her most recent novel is Companion Piece, a story that switches between post-Brexit lockdown Britain and the Middle Ages and examines questions about opening ourselves to other times, species, histories and possibilities.

Smith’s work explores themes including lifeforce and language, art and time, loss and history, aesthetic structure and imagination, connection and love. As an acclaimed novelist and short story writer, she is also a playwright, academic and journalist. She has also written for The Guardian, New Statesman, The Scotsman and The New York Times. 

Speaking of the award, Smith said:

I couldn't be more amazed and delighted at the gracious Bodley Medal coming my way.  Particularly because it comes from one of the world's greatest libraries.  Libraries are the ultimate source of sources – of thought; of knowledge; of history; of art; of language's own history and process and power; of the relationship between imagination, truth and fiction; themselves they're the prime and communal source of every book.  I'll keep it on my desk as a talisman.

The ceremony will feature Ali Smith in conversation with Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums at Oxford University. Covering Smith’s life, inspiration and literature, the event is one of the highlights of the Oxford Literary Festival programme. The medal will be presented at the end of the lecture. 

Of the forthcoming presentation of the Bodley Medal and event, Richard Ovenden, said

Ali Smith is an extraordinary writer. Her work considers the timely and timeless complexities of our world with a great sensitivity. She combines precision with playfulness and a highly original voice, inviting readers to engage with her work in inventive – even mischievous – new ways. Smith’s powerful writing has a conscience of its own; it invites and encourages us to consider our moral responsibilities to society. With a fierce conviction that reading does not just change lives, but helps us to live better lives, Ali Smith is a highly appropriate recipient of the Bodley Medal.

Tickets for the event should be booked in advance and are available from the Oxford Literary Festival website.

As part of the Oxford Literary Festival 2024, the Bodleian Libraries will host an exciting programme of events. Highlights include a show-and-tell of Shakespeare’s First Folio, talks from the curators of Write Cut Rewrite and Chaucer: Here and Now, and a VIP evening experience of treasures, talks and champagne. The libraries will also offer literary walking tours of the city, Duke Humfrey's Library, and dedicated literary walks for children and families. 

For further information, please contact Mae Cuthbertson via mae.cuthbertson@flint-culture.com 

Event details

The Bodley Lecture & Award of the Bodley Medal: Life and Work
Ali Smith interviewed by Richard Ovenden 
Thursday 21 March 2024, 6 – 7.30pm 
Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ
£8 – £20

Find out more about the Bodleian Libraries' programme for the Oxford Literary Festival.