Grivina, Satsi and Wilson among 17-strong longlist for the 2023 Nan Shepherd Prize

Canongate has announced a 17-strong longlist for this year’s Nan Shepherd Prize, which spotlights underrepresented voices in nature writing. Among the longlisted writers are poets Linda Wilson and Ruth L Satsi, as well as Ukrainian PhD researcher Viktoriia Grivina and ecologist Daniel Connaghan.

A shortlist will be revealed in mid October before a final winner is announced in November. The winner will receive a book deal with Canongate, including a £10,000 advance, and the option of literary representation with The Portobello Literary Agency. All longlisted and shortlisted authors will receive individual feedback on their entry.

The biennial prize aims to celebrate nature writing, provide an inclusive platform for new and emerging writers from underrepresented backgrounds, and discover new voices.

The judging panel for the 2023 prize features writers Claire Ratinon and Jason Allen-Paisant, Portobello Literary founder and agent Caro Clarke and Peggy Hughes, executive director of the National Centre for Writing. Helena Gonda, senior commissioning editor at Canongate, is chairing the judging panel.

Canongate launched the inaugural prize in 2019 and the winner that year was Nina Mingya Powles’ Small Bodies of Water. The 2021 prize was won by Marchelle Farrell, whose debut Uprooting was published in August this year.

The award was co-founded by Canongate’s former rights manager Caro Clarke and assistant editor Megan Reid. It is run by the publisher’s senior marketing executive Jamie Norman, managing editor Leila Cruickshank, head of brand Alan Nevens, and editorial assistants Melissa Tombere and Claire Reiderman. They said: "We were delighted to receive over 135 entries to this year’s prize, all showcasing the incredible breadth of nature writing across the UK and Ireland.

"Our 17-strong longlist each offer a unique perspective on our relationship with the natural world – with writing encompassing land rights, rewilding, conservation, mental health, neurodivergence, wellbeing, art, displacement, exile and immigration, the writers have brought a multitude of perspectives to engage with the natural world."

The longlist in full:

• The Night Run by Louis Bailey
• This Is Not A Wasteland by Caroline Beck
• Lang: The City Many Times Before and After by Meg Bertera-Berwick
• Tube Forest by Fiona Brewis
• Earth Diving by Daniel Connaghan
• A History of Abandonment by Linda France
• Potatoes and Other Hobbies by Viktoriia Grivina
• Fragmented by Stephanie Hirtenstein
• Morphoses: On Nature’s Processes and Processed Nature by Annie Lord
• The Dye Path by Toni Lötter
• Making A Living by Zoe Grace Marquedant
• Diviner by Kirsteen McNish
• Source Material by J L M Morton
• Wild Swimming by Isabel Palmer
• A Beautiful and Vital Place by Alycia Pirmohamed
• threading rak flowers by Ruth L Satsi
• Land Beneath the Waves by Nic Wilson