James Tait Black awards, UK's oldest book prizes, reveal 2016 winners

James Shapiro’s 1606, a detailed biography of a year in Shakespeare’s life, and Benjamin Markovits’s You Don’t Have to Live Like This both receive £10,000

James Shapiro’s exploration of a pivotal year in William Shakespeare’s life and a novel about a utopian experiment in Detroit by Benjamin Markovits are this year’s winners of the UK’s oldest literary awards.

Shapiro and Markovits were presented with the £10,000 James Tait Black prize at a ceremony at the Edinburgh international book festival on Monday night. Founded in 1919 by the widow of publisher James Tait Black, Janet Coats, the prize is awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh, after students and academics read more than 400 books to select the shortlist.

Related: 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear by James Shapiro review – a fraught political and cultural moment

Related: You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits review – utopianism meets racial distrust in Detroit

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