[4] In November 2023, having failed to secure a replacement sponsor, the award's governing body announced its rebrand as The Writers' Prize.
"[9] Mark Haddon said it was "not a mechanism for generating publicity by propelling a single book into the spotlight but a celebration of literary fiction as a whole.
[16] Beginning with the 2017 Rathbones sponsorship, the prize was awarded to the best new work of literature published in the English language during a given year, regardless of form (fiction, non-fiction and poetry).
[17][18] The Rathbones sponsorship supports a number of initiatives generated out of The Folio Academy, the group of writers who form the Prize's de facto governing body.
Initiatives include a new academy mentorship scheme, in association with the charity First Story, which will mentor aspiring young writers, as well as a series of Rathbones Folio Sessions throughout the year in the form of literary workshops, lectures and debates.
[3] The jury for the prize is called the academy, a body of more than 250 writers and critics that includes Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey, A. S. Byatt, Zadie Smith and J. M. Coetzee.