Poet Sarah Howe has won the £5,000 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award for her first collection, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus).

The award, which is in its 25th year, recognises the best literary work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish writer of 35 and under. Howe was born in Hong Kong in 1983 to an English father and Chinese mother and moved to England as a child. Loop of Jade was also shortlisted for the Forward prize for best first collection, and is on the shortlist for TS Eliot prize, which will be announced next month.

Andrew Holgate, award judge and literary editor at the Sunday Times, said: “The judges were unanimous in their choice of the winner. From the strongest of shortlists, they selected Loop of Jade as a work of astonishing originality, depth and scope. Her luminous poetry explores her dual heritage and different eras of Chinese culture, juxtaposing these with her own personal experiences. She is a writer always conscious of language; these are poems that are sensuous, subtle, and full of immediacy and resonance.”

PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ANDREW / WRITE OUT LOUD