The Baillie Gifford Prize 2022 Longlist Announced

Presenting the Baillie Gifford 2022 Longlist:

 

Author / translator 

 

Title 

 

Caroline Elkins 

 

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (The Bodley Head, Vintage, Penguin Random House UK)

 

Andrea Elliott

 

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Hutchinson Heinemann, Cornerstone, Penguin Random House UK)

 

Jonathan Freedland 

 

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World (John Murray Press, Hachette)

 

Thomas Halliday 

 

Otherlands: A World in the Making (Allen Lane, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House UK)

 

Daisy Hay 

 

Dinner With Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age (Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House UK)

 

Sally Hayden 

 

My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route (4th Estate, HarperCollins)

 

Matt Rowland Hill 

 

Original Sins: A Memoir (Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House UK)

 

Anna Keay 

 

The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown (William Collins, Harper Collins)

 

Polly Morland  A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story (Picador, Pan Macmillan)
Scholastique Mukasonga 
Translated by Jordan Stump
 

The Barefoot Woman (Daunt Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)

 

Katherine Rundell 

 

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber & Faber)

 

Jing Tsu 

 

Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession, and Genius in Modern China (Allen Lane, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House UK)

 

 

The longlist of 12 books were chosen by this year’s judging panel: writer and Associate Editor of The Bookseller, Caroline Sanderson (chair); writer and science journalist, Laura Spinney; critic and writer for The Observer, Rachel Cooke; BBC journalist and presenter, Clive Myrie; author and New Yorker writer, Samanth Subramanian; and critic and broadcaster, Georgina Godwin. Their selection was made from 362 books published between 1 November 2021 and 31 October 2022.

Caroline Sanderson, chair of judges, says: “It was a fiendishly difficult, but also highly enjoyable process by which my fellow judges and I arrived at the final 12 books in contention for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize. I’m delighted with our longlist which shows off non-fiction in all its splendid breadth, depth, and scope; from outstanding reportage and compelling memoirs to illuminating history books and mind-expanding popular science. And perhaps most importantly, all 12 books have been written with the experience of the reader firmly in mind.”

To find out more about the longlist, listen to the Read Smart podcast which will be available on YouTube, SpotifyApple Podcasts, and Soundcloud tomorrow. Host, Razia Iqbal, will be joined by three of our judges, Caroline Sanderson, Laura Spinney, and Samanth Subramanian to discuss the longlisted books and why they have been chosen to be in the running for this year’s prize.

The announcement of the six books shortlisted for this year’s prize will take place on 10 October during an event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The winner will be announced on 17 November at the Science Museum at an award ceremony generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The announcement will also be live-streamed across the Baillie Gifford Prize social channels.

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