Footnote Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, and Counterpoints Arts, the leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change, have today announced British-Hong Kong writer and lawyer Erica Li as the inaugural winner of the Footnote x Counterpoints Prize for Fiction.
The Footnote x Counterpoints Prize celebrates writers from refugee and migrant backgrounds telling stories centred around themes of displacement, courage and belonging. This is the second time that Footnote Press and Counterpoints Arts have partnered to run the Prize and the first time that it focused on fiction.
Erica Li’s winning story A Thousand Rivers of Time is a family saga chronicling the lives of three generations of women from a Hakka-Chinese family from 1945 to the present. The story explores themes of displacement, identity and memory and is a tribute to the resilience and courage of her paternal grandmother. The judges described the story as “taut and nuanced” and “a work of rare emotional force” with “such maturity and poise.”
Erica Li is a British-Hong Kong writer and lawyer based in London. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she comes from a family history shaped by displacement, migration and survival. She studied law at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Oxford. Her writing has been recognised across several platforms, having been shortlisted for the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize 2025 and winning the inaugural Ascent Novel Prize 2025. She was also selected for the HarperCollins Author Academy 2025 and the Covert Talent Development Programme 2025/26. She is an alumnus of the six-month Writing a Novel course at Faber Academy.
Erica Li said: “My grandmother passed away when I was sixteen, and I often think about how she lamented not being able to go to school and learn to read and write. I don’t take for granted the privilege of being able to do so, and I’m immensely grateful to the judging panel and the Footnote and Counterpoints Arts teams for the opportunity to give a voice to those who, like my grandmother, didn’t have one by virtue of being swept up in the tide of history. I can only hope to do justice to her story and the stories of those who have come before me, and to honour their courage, tenacity and sacrifice for future generations.”
The winner was selected by a judging panel composed of acclaimed writer Dina Nayeri; Waterstones’ Head of Books, Bea Carvalho; Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize-shortlisted and Observer Best New Novelist, Gurnaik Johal; Footnote Press Commissioning Editor, Serena Arthur; and director and co-founder of Counterpoints Arts, Almir Koldzic. As the winner, Erica will receive a prize equivalent to £15,000, which includes a £7,500 cash prize as well as a publication agreement with Footnote Press with an advance of a further £7,500.
Serena Arthur, Commissioning Editor at Footnote Press, said: “We were so impressed with each of the shortlisted authors this year, not only in their writing, but also with their confidence at their recent Southbank Centre panel event. As hard as the choice was, Erica’s piece shone through in just how much it fit the themes of the prize and how tender and brilliant her writing is. I genuinely can’t wait to work with her on the edits of her debut novel, A Thousand Rivers of Time.”
Almir Koldzic, Director and Co-Founder of Counterpoints Arts, said: “Erica’s story gives us an extraordinary and beautiful insight into the lives of three generations of Hakka-Chinese women. Written with great clarity and humour, this book will leave us all feeling enriched by encountering a fascinating story about a community absent from our literary world until now.”
The Prize is also supported by the Southbank Centre, who hosted an event in May 2026 at which Erica, along with her fellow shortlisted authors, read and discussed their work in conversation with acclaimed author Colin Grant.
