Tuesday 28 October 2025
The Orwell Foundation is now accepting entries for its six annual Orwell Prizes, the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing and reporting.
The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is returning this year thanks to sponsorship by Prospect Magazine, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, returns with a new remit to celebrate early-career journalists. Together with the Orwell Prize for Journalism, these prizes reflect the Foundation’s commitment to championing brave, impactful and evidence-based journalism, in the best tradition of George Orwell.
Winners will be announced on 25th June 2026 at the Bloomsbury Theatre as part of University College London’s year-long bicentennial celebration, UCL200, alongside two book prizes (Political Writing and Political Fiction) and The Orwell Youth Prize.
Unique panels of independent judges have been announced for each prize. The Orwell Prize for Political Writing will be chaired by Rohan Silva, founder of Libreria bookshop in Spitalfields, and the Political Fiction Prize will be chaired by writer, critic and former culture editor of The Economist, Fiammetta Rocco.
Greg Williams, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED UK will chair this year’s Journalism Prize, while The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will be chaired by editor of The Spectator, former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove. The chair for The Orwell Prize for Britain’s Social Evils will be Philip Collins, founder of The Draft and editor of Prospect Magazine.
Alongside Silva, The Orwell Prize for Political Writing will be judged by writer and journalist Jessie Lau; technology business editor at The Time, Katie Prescott; Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, Lawrence Freedman; and founding editor of Works in Progress and head of publishing at Stripe, Sam Bowman. Rohan Silva said:
In 2026, the Political Writing prize will celebrate George Orwell’s commitment to lucid prose, speaking truth to power and skewering authoritarianism. When Elon Musk wore an ‘What would Orwell think?’ t-shirt to address a Tommy Robinson march recently, it showed how Orwell’s ideas have never been more relevant – or more contested. It’s a privilege – albeit a daunting one – to be chairing this prize at a moment when illiberal forces across the political spectrum are seeking to curtail freedom of expression and thought.
Joining Fiammetta Rocco, the judges of the Fiction Prize will be Cal Revely-Calder, literary editor of The Telegraph; Olivette Otele, Distinguished Research Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London; and Scarlett Baron, Associate Professor in the English Department at University College London. Rocco said:
Fiction may be the best way we have of walking in someone else’s shoes. In divisive and polarised times, this is in itself a meaningful political act. With my fellow judges, I will be looking for illumination – for a novel that, in form, style and content, portrays our common humanity, the world we live in and the many challenges that are sent to test us: in short, a novel that Orwell himself would have admired.
Joining Greg Williams on The Orwell Prize for Journalism judging panel will be lawyer, businesswoman and racial justice campaigner Sayeeda Warsi; Executive Producer with Al Jazeera English Meenakshi Ravi; and acclaimed investigative journalist Nick Davies. Greg Williams said:
Our priority is journalism that is fearless, original and intellectually rigorous – work that holds power to account, brings clarity to complexity and amplifies voices too often unheard. Across long-form investigations, frontline reporting and urgent commentary, the prize recognises work where craft meets courage: writing that tells difficult truths with precision and purpose.
At a time when press freedom is under attack and the business of news is being undermined by technological change, The Orwell Prize stands by the belief that political writing is both an art and a vital public service.
On the panel for The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evil, chair Philip Collins will be joined by activist and author, Mina Smallman; former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd; and Principal Policy Adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Abby Jitendra. Collins said:
The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is designed to expose the solid truths of how we live. Sometimes through incompetence, sometimes through neglect, and sometimes through design, some people in Britain labour under the weight of serious social problems.
We are keen to read, listen and watch any form of entry that diagnoses a social evil, analyses it and shines a light upon it. The more arresting and artfully constructed it is, the more it will correspond to the example of the great founder of this prize.
In addition to Michael Gove, this year’s Reporting Homelessness Prize panel will include Lígia Teixeira, CEO of the Centre for Homelessness Impact, Sarah O’Connor, columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times, and Mel Young, advocate and President of the Homeless World Cup. In order to encourage and support early-career social reporters, this year’s Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will be open to journalists in the first eight years of their career.
Named in honour of the author and journalist George Orwell, the prizes are built on the foundation of Orwell’s values and in the qualities found in his own work: clarity, courage, critical thinking and imagination. Each Orwell Prize is worth between £3,000 and £5,000 to the winner, while the winners of The Orwell Youth Prize receive a cash prize, a selection of books by Orwell and books for their schools.
Judges for The Orwell Youth Prize were also announced today, with entries invited in response to the theme TRUTH. The panel will be composed of author/journalists Sophia Smith Galer and James Bloodworth, alongside actor, writer and activist, Nandana Dev Sen.
More information about all The Orwell Prizes, including individual eligibility criteria and entry forms are available on our website. A list of finalists for all the prizes will be announced in May 2026. For closing dates, please see our key milestones.
