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Richard Flanagan and Viet Thanh Nguyen, winners of the Booker and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction respectively, have been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024.
The shortlist was announced on Thursday evening (10th October) by 2024 prize judge, Peter Hoskin, at an event at Cheltenham Literature Festival. The prize recognises and rewards the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of any nationality.
The winning author will receive £50,000, with the other shortlisted authors each receiving £5,000, bringing the total prize value to £75,000.
The shortlist of six books was chosen by China Dialogue founder Isabel Hilton, who acted as chair; author and investigative journalist Heather Brooke; comment and culture editor for New Scientist Alison Flood; culture editor of Prospect Peter Hoskin; along with writers Tomiwa Owolade and Chitra Ramaswamy. Their selection was made from 349 books published between 1st November 2023 and 31st October 2024.
Hilton said: "The six shortlisted books showcase a breathtaking range of subjects and styles, expand our understanding and challenge our perspectives. Each one demonstrates exceptional scholarship and compelling narrative and offers profound insight into some of the most pressing issues of our time.
"It is a shortlist that we celebrate as a testament to the power of non-fiction to enlighten, engage and inspire us. Choosing a winner will be a daunting task but one that we embrace with enthusiasm."
Organisers said: "With his shortlisting, author Richard Flanagan is still in the running to become the first author to ‘win the double’ of both the Baillie Gifford and Booker Prizes.”
Prize director Toby Mundy, of Aevitas Creative Management UK, recently told The Bookseller about how the award organisers responded to the scrutiny over Baillie Gifford’s investments. He said that "the prize board has looked into Baillie Gifford’s strategy—and having noted that they have said there’s no future in fossil fuels; that they have 1% of their portfolio in fossil fuels when the [financial] industry average is 8%; and some of that ‘fossil fuel’ investment is companies transitioning to renewables—we’ve concluded that they are good partners".
Last year’s prize went to John Vaillant for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (Sceptre).