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Eve Makis shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award

Sandstone Press is thrilled to announce that The Spice Box Letters has been shortlisted for the EMBA

The East Midlands Book Award (EMBA) is a prestigious literary prize awarded annually to the Best Book written by an East Midlands Author. Every year £1000 is awarded to a writer of Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry or Plays. The aim of the award is to promote writers who live in the East Midlands, to raise the profile of the thriving literary scene in the region, and to reward exceptional work.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at Lowdham Book Festival in June (date TBC), where he/she will receive a cheque for £1000. The judges of the East Midland Book Award are Jane Streeter, Dan Powell, and the main judge is novelist Alison McQueen.


About the novel

Awarded the Aurora Mardiganian Gold Medal

Longlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize

Katerina inherits a scented, wooden spice box after her grandmother Mariam dies. It contains letters and a diary, written in Armenian. As she pieces together her family story, Katerina learns that Mariam’s childhood was shattered by the Armenian tragedy of 1915.

Mariam was exiled from her home in Turkey and separated from her beloved brother, Gabriel, her life marred by grief and the loss of her first love. Dissatisfied and restless, Katerina tries to find resolution in her own life as she completes Mariam’s story – on a journey that takes her across Cyprus and then half a world away to New York.

Eve Makis

Eve Makis