Orwell Prize

Winners and shortlists

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (2019–present)

The Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2019–present)

Combined book category (1994–2018)

Beginning with 2019, the Book prize was split into fiction and non-fiction categories.

The Orwell Prize for Journalism (1994–present )

The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils (2015–present)

The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness (2023–present)

Blog category (2009–2012)

Special prizes

In addition to the four regular prizes, the judges may choose to award a special prize.

In 2007, BBC's Newsnight programme was given a special prize, the judges noting, "When we were discussing the many very fine pieces of journalism that were submitted Newsnight just spontaneously emerged in our deliberations as the most precious and authoritative home for proper reporting of important stories, beautifully and intelligently crafted by journalists of rare distinction."

In 2008, Clive James was given a special award.

In 2009, Tony Judt was given a lifetime achievement award.

In 2012, a posthumous award was made to Christopher Hitchens, his book Arguably having been longlisted that year.****

In 2013, Marie Colvin received a special prize for On the Front Line. She had been killed earlier that year while on assignment in Homs, Syria.

In 2014, the Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland was given a special award, after having been shortlisted for the Journalism Prize that year.

Controversy

In 2008 the winner in the Journalism category was Johann Hari. In July 2011 the Council of the Orwell Prize decided to revoke Hari's award and withdraw the prize. Public announcement was delayed as Hari was then under investigation by The Independent for professional misconduct. In September 2011 Hari announced that he was returning his prize "as an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews", although he "stands by the articles that won the prize". A few weeks later, the Council of the Orwell Prize confirmed that Hari had returned the plaque but not the £2,000 prize money, and issued a statement that one of the articles submitted for the prize, "How multiculturalism is betraying women", published by The Independent in April 2007, "contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else's story (specifically, a report in Der Spiegel)".

Hari did not initially return the prize money of £2,000. He later offered to repay the money, but Political Quarterly, responsible for paying the prize money in 2008, instead invited Hari to make a donation to English PEN, of which George Orwell was a member. Hari arranged with English PEN to make a donation equal to the value of the prize, to be paid in installments once Hari returned to work at The Independent. However, Hari did not return to work at The Independent.

References

References

1. (10 August 2017). "About the Orwell Foundation".
2. (26 July 2016). "About the prizes".
3. (21 May 2014). "The Orwell Youth Prize".
4. "The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils".
5. (December 11, 2025). "The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness".
6. (23 September 2010). "The sponsors". The Orwell Prize.
7. "A brief history".
8. "A Brief History".
9. (18 November 2015). "Previous winners".
10. (2019-06-27). "Awards: Orwell Winners".
11. (2019-06-11). "Awards: Orwell Shortlists".
12. (10 July 2020). "Clanchy, Whitehead win 2020 Orwell Prize".
13. (2020-07-10). "Awards: Orwell Winners".
14. Schaub, Michael. (2023-05-15). "Finalists for the Orwell Prizes Are Announced".
15. (2020-05-22). "Awards: Orwell Shortlists".
16. (2021-06-28). "Smith, Yaffa win 2021 Orwell Prizes".
17. (2021-06-28). "Awards: Orwell Book Winners".
18. Caplan, Walker. (2021-06-25). "Here are the winners of the 2021 Orwell Prizes.".
19. (2021-06-01). "Awards: Thurber Winner; Orwell Book Shortlists".
20. (2021-06-01). "2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Shortlist".
21. Schaub, Michael. (2022-07-18). "Winners of the 2022 Orwell Prizes Are Revealed".
22. (2022-07-15). "Awards: Orwell Book Winners, Mo Siewcharran Longlist".
23. Doyle, Martin. (2022-05-18). "Three Irish authors on Orwell Prize shortlists; Sally Hayden also on Michel Déon list".
24. (2022-05-20). "Awards: Orwell Shortlists".
25. Creamer, Ella. (2023-06-22). "Two debut books win Orwell prizes for political writing". [[The Guardian]].
26. Schaub, Michael. (2023-06-23). "Winners of the 2023 Orwell Prizes Are Revealed".
27. (2023-06-27). "Awards: Orwell Book Winners".
28. "Finalists announced for the 2023 Orwell Prizes".
29. Creamer, Ella. (2024-06-27). "Hisham Matar wins Orwell prize for political fiction". The Guardian.
30. "2025 Political Fiction Book prize winner". The Orwell Prizes.
31. (28 June 2024). "Announcing the winners of The Orwell Prizes 2024 {{!}} The Orwell Foundation".
32. Schaub, Michale. (2024-05-28). "Finalists for the 2024 Orwell Prizes Are Revealed".
33. "2025 Political Writing Book prize winner". The Orwell Foundation.
34. (25 October 2018). "Orwell Foundation to Launch Political Fiction Prize". Orwell Prize.
35. (2018-10-29). "Orwellian News: Foundation Launches New Fiction Prize".
36. Bishop, Jordan. (2012-03-29). "Christopher Hitchens longlisted for the Orwell prize". The Guardian.
37. (5 April 2006). "Award for Sierra Leone war novel". BBC News.
38. Flood, Alison. (22 April 2009). "Guardian journalist wins Orwell book prize". The Guardian.
39. (2009-04-24). "Awards: Orwell Prize; Shirley Jackson Awards".
40. (2009-03-27). "Awards: Sami Rohr Prize; Orwell Prize Shortlist".
41. Flood, Alison. (17 May 2011). "Orwell prize goes to Tom Bingham". The Guardian.
42. (2011-05-19). "Awards: Orwell Prize".
43. (2011-04-27). "Awards: Orwell Prize Shortlist".
44. (2012-05-25). "Awards: Orwell Prize".
45. (23 May 2012). "Afghan war book wins Orwell Prize for political writing". [[BBC News]].
46. (2012-04-26). "Awards: Orwell Prize Shortlist".
47. Flood, Alison. (15 May 2013). "Orwell prize goes to 'chilling' study of Baha Mousa's death". The Guardian.
48. (2013-05-17). "Awards: Orwell; Wolfson History; Commonwealth Writers".
49. (2013-04-18). "Awards: Stella Winner; SIBA Finalists; Orwell Shortlist".
50. (2014-05-23). "Awards: Orwell; Independent Foreign Fiction".
51. (20 May 2014). "This Boy". The Orwell Prize.
52. (2014-04-25). "Awards: Cervantes Winner; Triangle Winners; Orwell Shortlist".
53. Flood, Alison. (21 May 2015). "James Meek wins Orwell prize for political writing". The Guardian.
54. (2015-05-22). "Awards: Orwell; Wolfson History; Orion; Australia Book Industry".
55. (2015-04-23). "Shelf Awareness".
56. (2016-05-27). "Awards: Orwell Winner; Trillium Finalists".
57. (2016-04-22). "Awards: Triangle; Orwell; James Tait Black".
58. (2017-06-19). "Awards: Orwell Winner; Miles Franklin Shortlist".
59. (2017-05-17). "Awards: Orwell Shortlist".
60. (2018-06-26). "Awards: Pritzker, Orwell, CLiPPA Winners".
61. "Fine shortlisted for Orwell Prize 2018 {{!}} Books+Publishing".
62. (2018-05-24). "Awards: Orwell Shortlist; Ngaio Marsh Longlist".
63. Morton, Brian. (17 December 2015). "Ian Bell: Scottish journalist whose nationalist writing won him the George Orwell Prize". [[The Independent]].
64. (14 April 2000). "Another prestigious award for journalism". The Independent.
65. Jury, Louise. (16 April 2002). "'Independent' writers are honoured in George Orwell awards". The Independent.
66. Jones, Sam. (5 April 2006). "Garton Ash wins Orwell prize". The Guardian.
67. Dowell, Ben. (25 April 2007). "Beaumont wins Orwell prize". The Guardian.
68. (24 April 2009). "Cockburn wins top journalism award". The Independent.
69. Trilling, Daniel. (2010-05-10). "Peter Hitchens wins Orwell Prize".
70. Deans, Jason. (18 May 2011). "Jenni Russell wins Orwell prize for political journalism". The Guardian.
71. Jones, Sam. (24 May 2012). "Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman wins Orwell prize". The Guardian.
72. Devlin, Mike. (16 May 2013). "Journalist Wins Orwell Prize for Investigative Journalism - Stephensons Solicitors LLP". Stephensons Solicitors LLP.
73. Williams, Martin. (21 May 2014). "Two Guardian journalists win Orwell prize for journalism". The Guardian.
74. Ratcliffe, Rebecca. (21 May 2015). "Guardian journalist Martin Chulov wins Orwell prize for Middle East coverage". The Guardian.
75. (27 May 2016). "Gideon Rachman wins 2016 Orwell Prize for journalism".
76. "Alumna wins prestigious Orwell Prize for Journalism".
77. "Shortlist Announced: The Orwell Prize For Journalism 2018".
78. "Suzanne Moore".
79. "Steve Bloomfield".
80. Marsh, Sarah. (2021-06-25). "Guardian journalists win Orwell prize for video series".
81. "The Orwell Prizes 2021: The Shortlists".
82. (2021-05-28). "Professor of Sociology shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Journalism 2021". [[The University of Manchester]].
83. (2022-07-14). "Winners 2022".
84. (2022-05-17). "Finalists 2022".
85. "Gary Younge". The Orwell Foundation.
86. "Wendell Steavenson {{!}} The Orwell Foundation".
87. (2022-05-17). "Finalists".
88. Gerrard, Nicci. (28 May 2016). "In telling their life stories, we seek to restore dignity to society's 'ghosts'". [[The Guardian]].
89. "Ed Thomas". The Orwell Foundation.
90. "Shanti Das". The Orwell Foundation.
91. "Mark Townsend". The Orwell Foundation.
92. "The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness".
93. "Freya Marshall Payne". The Orwell Foundation.
94. "Daniel Lavelle". The Orwell Foundation.
95. (2022-11-21). "Reporting Homelessness".
96. Robinson, James. (2010-05-19). "Orwell Prize goes to blogger who writes about 'working with the underclass'". [[The Guardian]].
97. "Graeme Archer".
98. "Cath Elliott".
99. "Daniel Hannan".
100. "Duncan McLaren".
101. Halliday, Josh. (27 September 2011). "Johann Hari faces fresh plagiarism allegations". The Guardian.
102. Hari, Johann. (15 September 2011). "Johann Hari: A personal apology". The Independent.
103. Gunter, Joel. (27 September 2011). "Orwell Prize will not pursue Hari over failure to return money". www.journalism.co.uk.
104. Pugh, Andrew. (27 September 2011). "Johann Hari yet to return Orwell prize £2,000". Press Gazette.
105. (4 October 2011). "The Orwell Prize and Johann Hari".