The finalists for the 2026 Orwell Prizes for political fiction and political writing have been revealed, with 16 books in contention for the annual U.K. awards that honor “the work which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition ‘to make political writing into an art.’”
Susan Choi was named a finalist for the political fiction prize for Flashlight, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Ben Lerner was shortlisted for Transcription, alongside Douglas Stuart for John of John and Stephanie Sy-Quia for A Private Man.
Also making the fiction shortlist were Tahmima Anam for Uprising, I.O. Echeruo for The Comfort of Distant Stars, Daniyal Mueenuddin for This Is Where the Serpent Lives, and Liadan Ní Chuinn for Every One Still Here.
Sam Dalrymple was named a finalist in the political writing category, which honors works of nonfiction, for Shattered Lands, as was Karen Bartlett for The Escape From Kabul, Omer Bartov for Israel: What Went Wrong?, and Nilo Tabrizy and Fatemeh Jamalpour for For the Sun After Long Nights.
The other books contending for the political writing prize are Andrey Kurkov for Three Years on Fire, Yi-Ling Liu for The Wall Dancers, Nicolas Niarchos for The Elements of Power, and Antonia Senior for Stalin’s Apostles.
The Orwell Prizes were established in 1994. Previous winners include Anna Burns for Milkman, Patrick Radden Keefe for Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, and Hisham Matar for My Friends.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 25.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
