2013 Longlists Announced

Thursday 21 March 2013

The Orwell Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing, is supported by the Media Standards Trust, Political Quarterly, AM Heath and Richard Blair (Orwell’s son). The longlists for the 2013 Orwell Prize were announced online at midday yesterday. You can see the full list of 14 journalists here and 12 books here. Each of the longlisted journalist’s submitted articles are available on our website and extracts from each of the books will be uploaded soon. We’re delighted with our judges choices and really look forward to the shortlisting. Book judge, Arifa Akbar wrote a wonderful piece for The Independent on her judging process with details of what made each of the books stand out for her. We received plenty of coverage yesterday from the New Statesman to the LA Times and our Operations Manager, Katriona Lewis, was invited to speak on Monocle radio last night about trends in political writing reflected in our longlists.

Book your place for the Shortlist debate

For this year’s annual shortlist debate we will be focusing on Burma and reflecting on our trip to the Irrawaddy Lit Fest in February. Following the announcement of this year’s six journalists and six books to make the shortlist, a panel will discuss the question; “When censorship declines does freedom emerge?” We’d love to see as many familiar faces as possible there for our 20th anniversary year. The event will take place on the evening of Wednesday 17th April at the University of Westminster on Regents Street. Places are limited but you can register free here to join us for the announcement, debate and some drinks.

From elsewhere: longlist coverage

  • New Statesman’s Daniel Trilling longlisted for the Orwell Prize, New Statesman
  • Orwell Book Prize 2013: Marie Colvin heads longlist, Telegraph
  • Marie Colvin’s On The Front Line longlisted for Orwell prize, The Independent
  • George Orwell’s legacy: Orwell Prize longlist announced, LA Times
  • Monocle radio show featuring Katriona Lewis

    • From the archive

    This is a good week to have another look at Orwell’s essay ‘In front of your nose’, first published in the Tribune on 22nd March 1946.

    The diaries

    Don’t forget our other Orwell Diary blogs: his Wartime Diary, Hop-Picking Diary and The Road to Wigan Pier Diary. You can sign up to our newsletter If you’ve got any suggestions about our website(s), we’d love to hear from you – email us on katriona.lewis@mediastandardstrust.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.