There are four key ‘milestones’: the launch and opening of submissions; the closing of submissions; the finalists announcement; and the announcement of the winner at the Orwell Festival of Political Writing.
1) Opening of submissions and announcement of judges
New judging panels are announced each year. You can read about this year’s panels here.
Entry to the Orwell Prizes will open in November prior to the year in which the prizes are awarded, e.g. entry to the Orwell Prizes 2023 will open in November 2022. All the prizes are currently open for entries via the online forms, here.
- The 2023 Book Prizes are for books published between 1st June 2022 and 31 st May 2023.
- The 2023 Prizes for Journalism and Exposing Britain’s Social Evils will recognise work published between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023.
- The 2023 Prize for Reporting Homelessness will recognise work published or created between 1st April 2021 and 31st March 2023.
Rules and full eligibility criteria for all the Orwell Prizes are available here.
2) Closing of submissions
Entry to the Orwell Book Prizes will close on 16th January 2023, with any final copies of books due by 28th February 2023.
Entry to the Orwell Prizes for Journalism and Exposing Britain’s Social Evils will close on 31st March 2023.
Entry to the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness will close on 17th April 2023.
3) Finalists
Judging panels will select eight to ten finalists in late May/early June, form which winners will be announced at a prize ceremony on 22nd June 2023.
4) Orwell Festival of Political Writing
The prize cycle will culminate in the Orwell Festival of Political Writing (7th – 22nd June 2023), held in association with University College London and featuring finalists and judges from across the prizes and the Orwell Youth Prize, as well as other important voices in contemporary political writing and thinking. The Festival will close with the announcement of the winners on 22nd June.