[1] It is awarded annually to a piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.

"[2][3] It is limited to citizens and residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and to novels published by presses based in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

[4] Tim Parnell of the Goldsmiths English department conceived and runs the prize, inspired by his research into Laurence Sterne and other eighteenth-century writers, like Denis Diderot, who experimented with the novel form.

[5][2] The prize "casts its net wider than most other prizes" and intends to celebrate "creative daring," but resists the phrase "experimental fiction," because it implies "an eccentric deviation from the novel’s natural concerns, structures and idioms.

Nine authors have been shortlisted twice: Amy Arnold, Sara Baume, Will Eaves, Deborah Levy, Eimear McBride, Anakana Schofield, Ali Smith, Adam Thirwell, and Isabel Waidner.