Sanghera, Shafak and Blakemore shortlisted for £10k Ondaatje Prize

Sathnam Sanghera, Elif Shafak and A K Blakemore are among the six writers shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s annual £10,000 Ondaatje Prize, which recognises an outstanding work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that "best evokes the spirit of a place".

Sanghera’s Empireland: How Imperialism has shaped Modern Britain (Viking), which was shortlisted for the Parliamentary Book Awards, is in the running alongside Shafak’s latest novel, The Island of Missing Trees (Penguin).

“For me, Empireland is as much of a campaign as a book—an effort to get this country and educators to wake up to its imperial history," Sanghera said. "And a blue-chip shortlisting like this makes a real difference.”

Blakemore’s debut novel, The Manningtree Witches (Granta), follows the reign of terror exercised by historical figure and self-proclaimed Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins in the Essex village of Manningtree. 

Blakemore, who won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2021 for her debut, said: “I am absolutely honoured that The Manningtree Witches has been shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, one of the most exciting and eclectic awards I know of. I’m so pleased the judges enjoyed my evocation of a liminal little corner of Essex, and congratulate all the other authors.”

Also on the list is Cal Flyn for Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape (William Collins), which explores the "extraordinary places where humans no longer live or survive in tiny, precarious numbers to give us a possible glimpse of what happens when mankind’s impact on nature is forced to stop".

Lea Ypi’s coming-of-age memoir Free (Allen Lane) has also made the cut, alongside Writing the Camp by Yousif M Qasmiyeh (Broken Sleep Books).

The six authors were chosen from 221 on this year’s longlist by judges Patrice Lawrence, chair Sandeep Parmar and Philippe Sands.

The winner will be crowned on 4th May at Two Temple Place in London.