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Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Winner of Winners’ To Be Named April 27
The latest addition to the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction program in the United Kingdom is a one-off “winner of winners” honor.
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction today (March 9) is announcing a 25th-anniersary shortlist comprised of six titles that have previously won the prize. The winner is to be announced on April 27, and the moment carries a purse of £25,000 (US$29,594).
This is is an add-on to the normal sequence of the program’s awards—like those created by other, competing award programs—something that can generate news-media attention beyond the year’s regular award.
The announcement of the winner is to be held at Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland. These titles chosen for the anniversary award are said to encompass 18 of the program’s 25 years.
Two of the six “winner of winners” contenders are Canadian authors and three are Americans.
The Baillie Gifford Prize Anniversary Shortlist
| Author, Translator (Nationality) | Title | Publisher and/or Imprint, Year of Win |
| Craig Brown (United Kingdom) | One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time | HarperCollins / Fourth Estate, 2020 |
| Wade Davis (Canada) | Into the Silence: The Great War Mallory and the Conquest of Everest | Penguin Random House UK / Vintage / Bodley Head, 2012 |
| Barbara Demick (United States) | Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea | Granta 2010 |
| Patrick Radden Keefe (United States) | Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty | Penguin Random House UK / Doubleday, 2021 |
| Margaret Macmillan (Canada) |
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed The World (formerly Peacemakers: Six Months That Changed The World) |
Hachette UK / John Murray Press, 2002 |
| James Shapiro, United States |
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare |
Faber & Faber, 2006 |
Waterstones is to have displays in its stores of the 24 previous winners.
The six shortlistees were chosen by New Statesman editor-in-chief, Jason Cowley (chair); academic, critic and broadcaster, Shahidha Bari; journalist, author, and academic, Sarah Churchwell; and biographer and critic Frances Wilson.
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing industry and book awards is here, more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, more on the Baillie Gifford Prize is here, and more on nonfiction is here.