The winners of the 2024 Vaisey Awards were announced at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday 6 October. This year a second stream was added to the Awards, with school libraries being eligible for the first time to submit projects for consideration by the judges, making a total of eight projects to receive funding. 

The main winner of the libraries award was a joint bid from six libraries – Matson, Tuffley, Cinderford, Hester’s Way, Oakley and Dursley – for the Gloucestershire Family Festival, an outreach project which took place over the October half-term. Awards were also given to Cinderford, Chipping Camden, and Moreton-in-Marsh libraries.   

The main schools’ award was given to Dene Magna School in the Forest of Dean, for a library-centred project aimed at raising the profile and status of reading within the school and its wider community. Awards were also given to Gloucester Academy, The Shrubberies, and Stratton Primary School.

The awards were presented by writer and journalist Julia Wheeler, and you can read more about all the winning projects here. 

Julia also presented this year’s Young Person’s Awards. It had been planned to award up to three of these, but the standard of entry this year was so high that the judges decided to award five. Two awards of £100 each went to Arun Gopal, nominated by Gloucester Library, and Leah Capewell, nominated by Oakley, while three awards of £75 each went to Daisy Obonyo, Isobel Collett and Harry Flynn McIntyre, nominated by Newent, Dursley and Longlevens libraries respectively.